H2o Dangers in the Deep
by EpicFantasyStories
Summary: Denman is back in town, causing more drama for the girls. Lewis is still trying to figure out what the moon is doing and Rikki is pregnant with Zane's baby, but who gets kidnapped and how will they be saved?
1. Guess who's back in town?

**A/N: Hey guys! This will be the squeal to my H2o Season 4 Complications which is now called H2o Dangers in the Deep. You don't have to read the whole first part of my story but if you want a brief summary of what happened in H2o Season 4 Complications, please ask ;)**

**Just a recap of what happened previously:**** Emma is back and she has become friends with Sophie which has turned Emma quite mean. The 4 mermaids are trying to be friends again but obstacles are getting in the way. They're trying to figure out whats going on with the moon and Lewis proposed to Cleo. Rikki had Sex with Zane, getting pregnant but she still won't get back together with him despite of her trust Issues. Everything seems like its falling apart with the girls and now Lewis has just announced Denman is back in town. **

**I highly recommend you read the first part of my series for new readers but you don't have to if you don't want to. Ok, on with the story ;)**

**Lewis's Pov**

_Flashback_

I was heading towards Cleo's house, still trying to figure out what was causing the full moon to take affect on the girls. I swear I thought it was the crystals dong this to them. I've been studying Mako island for months, more than I ever had and I still haven't found any answers.

I knew I was going back to collage in a few weeks but if I didn't get this figured out by then, they might end up getting moon struck right on campus.

The full moon was tonight so we had to be prepared with whatever it was going to throw at us. Nothing made sense at this point. To think the full moon was going to stop affecting them when they stopped the comet from hitting Mako island. What else would Mako want them to do? Stop another comet?

I was near the docks of the ocean, a slight breeze hitting my face as the scorching sun was hitting down on the Gold Coast of Australia. I was wearing some baggy shorts, a pair of old sneakers and a white and blue stripped t-shirt. I just told Cleo I was on my way to her house, knowing everyone was going to meet her over there too.

It was then when I turned around to look at all the boats that were parked out on the docks, that I saw something familiar. It was this one particular boat. A boat that had brought bad memories and misery to Cleo and the others. Shaking my head, trying to take a closer look at it, I took a step onto the docks. What was I thinking? There were many boats that looked the same. My mind was playing tricks on me but unfortunately, it wasn't.

To actually think I would remember this specific boat after many of years but I had to admit, it was an incident I could never forget. It was the one and only, doctor Denman's boat. What was Denman doing back here on the Gold Coast anyways?

I took a step closer onto the docks, leaning froward to double check that I wasn't mistaking her boat for someone elses. I couldn't really tell from a distance but I knew if I got any closer to it, I would just be asking for trouble.

This was wrong. She couldn't be back. Its just me and my mind playing tricks on me. I should be doing one thing and that's concentrating on getting back with the others.

Right as I was about to turn around, I heard a familiar voice.

"Lewis...?" a feminine voice flowed into my ears, making me instantly spin around to the person who was calling out for me.

Right then I saw her. She was wearing a grey shirt, some blue jeans and her hair was up in a pony tail as I last recalled seeing her. She looked a lot older but she still had that beautiful long silky blonde hair and a gorgeous complexion which didn't make her look a day over 30. Her eyes were bright blue in curiosity and she was holding a box full of materials.

She slightly smiled but the glaze in her eyes seemed rather cold than welcoming. It seemed as if I was someone she should stay away from. She didn't look too pleased too see me but she continued to force a smile.

I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out.

Denman swung her pony tail out infront so that it would be laying on her shoulder, struggling a bit to keep the box of materials in her arms.

"Now is it really? I must say, you look quite grown up from the last time i've seen you." Denman commented, the smile from her face slowly starting to disapear.

I slowly relaxed, trying not to show any sign of insecurity that was built up inside me. I took a quick deep breath, trying to bring up something to say.

"Denman. What... What are you doing back here on the coast?" I heisted to ask, trying to keep coool.

Denman sighed, slowly putting the box aside of her body so that it wasn't covering her face. I couldn't tell what was in the box but it looked like a bunch of under water equipment.

"Ah. You know. The usual. Studying fish population, keeping track of the marine enviorment, researching different type of ocean life..." She started off saying.

"And you Lewis? Your not still trying to be a marine biologist you've always wanted to be?" She questioned with a some what friendly smile.

"Me? Um, yes actually... I got accepted in a marine collage in America. Nothing big but I returned to finish collage here." I quickly explained.

"Good to hear... I'm sure you've found some interesting things going on around the area." She mentioned.

I frowned.

"What do you mean?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Well, it was interesting the way all the fish disappeared when the comet was near the Gold Coast. I was around the area when it happened and I came back to see if the fish have returned. Just strange how they would just disappear like that... Don't you think?" She tilted her head, the glaze in her eyes getting colder.

I shook my head.

"Well I wasn't here when the comet struck by the area but i'm sure it was nothing important." I mentioned.

"Ah well that's where your wrong Lewis. Everything in some way has a scientific explanation and we wouldn't want some whole population of fish disappearing out of our oceans. Me and my crew were called up from one of the marine clinics to investigate this, trying to figure out the source as to what caused them to leave." She explained.

I nodded my head in understanding.

"Well hopfully that goes well. Wouldn't want to stand in the way of you solving that mystery. I need to be going anyways." I metnioend, akwardly walking around Denman to get off the docks.

"And you don't have the slightest clue of why that happened?" She catiously asked.

I was already on the sidewalk, taking a deep breath while slowly turning around to face her.

"Look, I know just as much as you do. Plus what would I know anyways? It was probably some toxic oil that drove the fish away from the ocean. Doesn't seem like we would need to get all hyped up about this." I mentioned.

Denman gave a samll devious smile, trying to keep in the box up in the air.

"Sorry Leiws. I think we may be on the wrong page here. So what the fish left the ocean? It's just rather strange that this mysterious light from Mako island would stop a comet from hitting earth." She gave in some input.

"I have no idea what your talking about." I crossed my arms.

"Well i've been tracking some magnetic force from Mako which could of also droven the fish away from the area. Maybe it had something to do with the comet. It's just strange how the comet would just explode like that. Just seems unrealistic... like something stopped it." She continued.

"That's ridiculous. How could anything stop a comet?" I snapped back.

"Well you know. Weird things have happened around the area of Mako island. I don't suppose your friends had anything to do with this?" She suspiciously asked.

Anger came into me.

"What so now you think they're the source of this? Remember, they gave up their powers 2 years ago? They have nothing you want and you know it." I concluded.

Denman sighed.

"Don't need to get worked up about this Lewis. Was just making sure. It was unfortunate how I put them in a situation where it forced them to give up their powers." She mentioned with a bit of regret.

"And so what? Now you're here to apologize?" I snapped at her.

"Nope. Just organizing data. Making sure i'm gathering all the right information needed for this investigation. A great scientist always double checks their work." She gave a small quick smile.

"I must be going now. Don't want to keep everyone waiting. Good seeing you again Lewis." She mentioned, walking off to her boat with the box of materials in her hand.

"Wish I could say the same..." I softly said, turning around to walk away from the scene.

I knew I had to get back to Cleo's quickly. Who knew how long Denman would be back in town but at this point it didn't matter. I just needed to warn the others about this, before anything gets out of hand.

_Flashback Ends_

** Emma's Pov**

I was walking down the side walk, applying lip gloss on my face while holding a small hand mirror. From everything that has been going on, its been a total mess. Luckily we survived another full moon with out anyone dying. I think for once, everyone fell asleep before the moon actually arrived. What? That's what happens when Cleo suggests putting some romantic pointless movies for us to watch. They're just so boring and you end up falling asleep, though everyone did look quite concern with Denman coming back.

Lewis has probably been one of the most over protective guys since he announced about the doctor returning. He's always following Cleo around, making sure she doesn't get into trouble and he's keeping a close eye on Rikki, making sure she doesn't escape off to Mako island.

At first, I didn't believe Rikki when she told me she was pregnant but it didn't take too long to realize she was telling the truth when she took out the pregnancy test from out of her bag. Of course it had that stupid green plus sign on it and she gave me that look that just made me pitty her.

It was our last week here before me and the rest of us go off to collage, leaving Rikki all by herself. Did she deserve it? I don't know. Maybe it was just another way for her to get out of collage. I mean, she could still practically go if she wanted to. She was only like 3 or 4 months pregnant.

I still had that bad feeling about her and Zane. Maybe it was just Zane but still... Zane is Zane. And weirdly enough, I haven't seen him in like over a month, not since the last time I saw him trying to talk to Rikki, when me and everyone else were hanging out at the beach. Rikki never did announce they were back together ether. She still seems pretty cautious of him, it doesn't make sense that she would give in and a raise a baby with him. Who knew how long that would last but luckily, I don't have to deal with that. Emma Gilbert is off to collage, getting a medical degree and becoming a nurse. I wouldn't let anything stop me from that...

"Hey Emma." A sweet voice came from behind me.

It was Bella. Her long wavy Blonde hair was lose as she was wearing a cute white top, some blue jeans and some ankle high purple converse. I saw her walk next to me as she gave me a quick smile.

"Well this has surly been interesting." She raised her eyebrows, looking at the direction of the sky.

"What do you mean?" I asked, putting away my lip gloss and mirror into my bag.

"You know, with collage, the moon, this Doctor Denman chick and Rikki being pregnant?" Her voice went high when she referred to Rikki.

"Thats a shocker." I sarcastically mentioned, rolling my eyes.

"Ya, just thinking about it makes me kinda repulsive. It just dsoen't seem like her for going off and doing something like that." Bella concedered.

"Well you should of seen Zane and Rikki two years ago when all they did was spend time with each other. To be honest, i'm not too shocked about it." I mentioned.

"Well you should of been here last year when they ran the cafe together." She started off saying..

I made a disgusted face when she included the part about them running the cafe.

"All they did was fight and... they would never get along. Zane never really cared and Rikki always seemed annoyed with him so for her to go do something like that..." She added but didn't complete her sentence..

"Well thats just Rikki and Zane. And the least thing we need is another one of them... put in one." I mentioned.

Bella slightly laughed, rolling her eyes.

"You could say that again." She agreed.

"Hey guys!" I heard someone yell from behind us, the sound of flip flops echoing down the side walk.

I turned around, seeing Cleo smiling at us. She was wearing a short pink dress as her long brown hair let down as well.

"Whats up?" She asked, shrugging her shoulders a bit.

"You know, discussing whats going on." Bella responded.

"You mean with Rikki and Zane?" Cleo asked.

I gave her that face that indicated she was right. Cleo sighed.

"Come on guys. Its not like she has cancer or something. I know its bad but maybe its good-" She started saying but I cut her off.

"Good? Rikki and Zane as parents? Nope. Thats just calling out for disaster." I shook my head.

"Ya but babies are so cute! Were gonna be aunts!" Cleo said with a bit of a sequel.

Bella slightly smiled but I gave her that annoyed face that made her frown.

Cleo gave a deep breath and looked at the ground.

"Ok. I admit, its bad but maybe we should be a bit supportive about this. Its not the baby's fault. Plus Rikki kinda needs us. What kind of friends would we be if we didn't help..." Cleo explained.  
>"Ya but don't you have this weird feeling about Rikki being with Zane. She still acts like she completely hates him plus that was her mistake, not ours." I started saying.<p>

"Well who said Zane needed to help Rikki out with the baby? Who knows. Maybe they'll go off their seprate ways." Bella mentioned.

"Whatever. I just don't want to be caught up in all that baby drama. Don't we have other things to worry about like the full moon and Denman?" I asked.

"I know and then we have collage and were probably going to be over loaded with homework." Bella complained.

"Yup. And thats probably the least thing i'm looking forward to doing this school year." I mentioned.

Cleo nodded in agreement.

"Well how are my fine lovley ladies doing today?" Will snuck up on us, as he wrapped his arms around Bella.

She laughed, giving him a kiss on the lips.

"Is Rikki with you guys?" Will asked, unwrapping his arms off of Bella so that he could hold her hand.

"No. its only 11 in the morning. I wouldn't be surprised if she was still sleeping." Cleo teased, Will kissing Bella's hand resulting a smile from her.

"I still can't beilive it." Will started saying.

"Can't beilive what?" Cleo asked.

"You know. With Rikki? Isn't it a bit bivalent that she would go off a do something like that? I don't know, it just seems... strange." He concluded.

"I think whatever went on with Rikki and Zane should just stay with them. I don't think we should interfer with their... sex life." Bella mentioned akwardly.

"Ya I know and we've probably ran past this conversation 20,000 times ever since she announced about it but..." He drifted off.

"But what?' Cleo asked.

"Look. i don't want to jump to conclusions or anything but Rikki's behavior around Zane shouldn't be normal for someone who likes eachother." Will explained.

"So? I don't even think Rikki likes Zane anymore. how does that have to do with anything? It's not like they're back together." Bella asked.

"But...What if Zane... you know..." Will took a deep breathe. "Raped her?"

Everyone froze in place, pausing to turn around and stare at Will.

"I didn't say it was true but it could be a possibility! Plus it would seem like something that would happen! You guys know Rikki. Probably longer than I have and this just doesn't seem like her." He exclaimed.

"Ok, even if Zane...raped her," Cleo mentioned softly. "Dont you think she would tell us or something?" She asked.

"No. You know how Zane is. He probably threatened to tell her secret to everyone if she told us. I'm just thinking of how this would go. I can't just stand around, expecting Rikki to be telling us the truth." WIll stated.

Everyone continued walking.

"Maybe you have a point." Bella said.

"Oh my gosh. RIkki could have been raped." Cleo said softly.

I bit my lip, now regretting saying all the bad things about Rikki and how she was a slutt to go off a do that. My goodness. Maybe thats why Rikki isn't coming out anymore. Maybe she's...scared? It seemed too unreal but at the same time, it made sense.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

WIll sighed.

"We'll just have to get the truth out of Rikki." He mentioned.

"And what if she wasn't rapped? Thats another option." I said.

"Ya right. I think the chances of that are low. Zane's gonna get it. Next time I see him, he's dead." WIll curled up his fists.

"Woah woah woah. Look, whatever your thinking Will, could just be a misunderstanding. We need to take this one step at time. Even if Rikki was rapped, getting revange won't do it. We need to talk to the police if this happened. We don't even know if she was raped. It was just a guess." Cleo explained.

"Ya. Lets just take this slowly. We don't want any more trouble coming up." Bella grabbed WIll's fist, relaxing it so that she could hold his hand.

Will sighed.

"Ok. I'll take it slowly but if it is true, Zane better watch his back..."

A/N: Yay! First chapter of 2nd series. If any one has questions, please ask me! Reviews are defiantly appreciated! ;)


	2. Packing

**Cleo's Pov**

_Flashback _

I walked down stairs, fresh and clean as I just took a bath. I was supposed to meet Lewis and the others in 30 minutes since we were going to discuss about the full moon. Always thinking about the full moon gave me this bad gutt feeling in my stomach. Something always disastrous had to happened.

I walked down stairs to see Kim and my Dad sitting next to each other. I froze, hoping Kim didn't mention any thing to Dad about the engagement ring. If she did, I was so screwed.

"Morning Sweet heart." My dad placed the news paper on the table, me leaning over so that I could kiss his check.

"Hey, do we have any pancake batter left?" I asked, searching through the pantry.  
>"Shoot. I forgot to get some yesterday when I went grocery shopping. I promise i'll get some today. I probably need to get some milk anyways." My dad mentioned.<p>

I opened the refrigerator to see barley any milk at the bottom of the container.

Kim just deviously smiled, sipping some milk and eating her bowl of cereal. Its like she always did that on purpose.

I sighed, grabbing a fruit from out of the basket. My sister continued to eat her cereal and my dad looked back at the news paper.

I cautiously turned on the sink, throwing the fruit to where the water was running. I used the water to keep the fruit up in the air as I slowly turned it side ways so that it could get washed up. My dad flipped the newspaper, making me instantly look back but, he was just reading some comics out of the paper. He didn't have the slightest clue as to what I was doing.

I stopped the water as the fruit fell to the bottom of the sink. I grabbed a towel and dryed it as well as I could. Once it was dry, I picked it up and took a bite out of it. I sat down with the others, trying to look at what my dad was reading.

"Hey dad." I started asking.

"Yes." He asked, continuing to flip throw the news paper.

"Lewis and the others are coming over this morning. Do you mind if they stay a while." I gave him a sweet innocent voice.

He sighed, looking away at the newspaper and directly at me.

"Ok, just don't make too much noise. Sam isn't feeling well today." Dad mentioned.

"And why does Cleo get to invite her friends over and not me?" Kim madly crossed her arms.

"Last time you brought your friends over, you broke Sam's favorite lamp. And remember, your grounded for a week. No friends over." My dad sternly exclaimed, looking back at the newspaper.

Kim rolled her eyes.

"Ya cause of course Cleo is the good girl around in the house." Kim kept her arms crossed.

"I said thats enough." My dad kinda yelled.

I gave Kim a mean look, making her pissed off even more. I knew that second I regretted giving her that look.

"Well Cleo's getting married." Kim gave a small smile as she sat up from her chair.

Immediately my dad folded his newspaper and slammed it on the table.

"Don't lie to me Kim. Last time you went off and told everyone Cleo was getting married and it was a huge lie. You're not inviting your friends over and that's final." He yelled.

"No Dad! It's true! Cleo's getting married and she even has a ring!" Kim stood up.

I opened my mouth, shocked she would even say anything to Dad about this.

"She's lying!" I immediately yelled back.

"Oh really! Then if she were lying then why would she have this?" And with that, Kim took out a diamond ring from out of her dress pocket. My diamond ring.

"Give me that!" I snapped at her, grabbing the ring from out of her hand and safely placing it into my purse.

My dad just sat there in shock. The expression on his face couldn't even be described with words. He definitely did not look happy.

"What was that?" He asked.

"What was what?" I gave a small insecure shrug.

"That ring! What was it?" He snapped back.

"It was just a ring! Nothing more." I quietly said.

He grabbed my bag, roughly taking the ring from out of it. I sat there, trying not to freak out. Kim just sat there, amused by the whole situation. My dad silently examined the ring, trying to see if it was real or not.

"Well it sure dosen't look like Sam's wedding ring and its made out of real diamonds so exactly, where did you get it?" He asked me.

"From her boyfriend... or should I say fiance!" Kim deviously smiled. Immediately I shoved my elbow into her stomach.

"OW!" She screamed.

"Oh shut up! That did not hurt! Stop being such a baby!" I yelled.

"Guys! I did not ask you Kim! Where did you get the ring!" My dad furiously asked.

I sighed, not wanting to answer. Obviously that ring had to coast more than a thousand dollars so my dad knew I couldn't pay for it myself.

"Lewis." I quality responded.

Kim smiled.

"I knew it! I told you she was getting married! Look who's lying now!" She got up from the table and put her cereal bowl in the sink.

I looked down at the table, fiddling with my thumbs.

"Is it true?" Dad asked.

I stayed silent for a few seconds, Kim placing her hand on her hips.

"I wasn't even planning on getting married til after I was finsihed with collage." I told him.

My dad furiously stood up.

"So what! Now you think you can go off and get married!" He yelled.

"Yes! I mean no! I mean I should! I'm 19 dad! Almost 20! I'm going to collage with my boyfriend and I should have the right to if I want to get married or not!" I also stood up.

"You're way to young to get married! You barley just got out of high school 3 months ago! Just because your going to collage dosen't mean you should get married!" He lectured.

"No! I'm waiting til after collage! Once I finish my two years, then me and Lewis will get married! I should at least be 21 by the time that happens! Come on! Isn't that old enough?" I yelled.

My dad just stood there in upsetness, staring down at the ring. I nervously crossed my arms, waiting for his responce.

"Well i'm going upstairs. Hopfully everything works out for you two. Bye!" Kim gave a fake smile, running up to her room.

"Dad, if you only-" I broke the silence after a few seconds but he cut me off.

"No. Don't...say... a word." He sternly said, harshly giving the ring to me in my hand. He immediately turned around, slowly following Kim up the stairs.

This was bad. Very bad. What if Dad didn't let me get married? What if he sent me off to a different collage. I sighed, putting the ring back in my purse. So much for being engaged...

_End of Flashback_

**Rikki's Pov**

"Well. There's the last of my things. We'll be prepared to leave in no time." Emma mentioned, zipping up her suitcase.

Cleo and Bella were also there, sitting on her bed.

Bella and Cleo smiled with Emma, all excited to leave for Collage tomorrow.

I gave a fake smile, looking down at my freshly new painted toe nails. I was wearing some silver flip flops, accompanied by some white shorts and a dark blue t-shirt.

Cleo looked at me, knowing that the look in my eyes gave away the sadness that was built deep down inside of me. I should also be packing for collage right now. I remembered before being pregnant, that going to collage seemed like something I would want to run away from. Now, its like I would do anything to get out of my situation. Emma lifted her suitcase off the bed and placed it standing up.

"And here are my two bags, one containg my laptop and shoes and... I think that's pretty much about it." She placed a finger on her chin.

"This is going to be so exciting. And I contacted Will and he also said he was ready to go tomorrow." Bella started off saying.

"And that giant collage party to start it off." Emma added in.

"Ohh ya! Thats going to be so much fun!" Bella added some enthusiasm, as the two blond girls laughed.

I couldn't keep the fake smile going for any time longer. I knew they weren't trying to rub anything into my face but staying here and talking about this, didn't make it any better for me.

"And then we get new dorms at the collage buildings. Hopefully the three of us get paired up in the same room." Cleo crossed her fingers.

"Three people can be in one room?" Emma questioned.

"Yes. I think there' a room that is made for 3 people but unfortunately, there is still only one bathroom." Bella teased.

"Plus we sent in the request for the three of us to be in the same dorm so I dont think it will be a big deal." Cleo reassured.

I nodded my head. Trying to pretend I was part of the conversation but I felt like I was cut off from out of the circle. I played with my nails, trying to think of something else besides collage.

The three girls quickly glanced at me, knowing that this wasn't helping at all. Cleo bit her lip.

"Hey Rikki." Cleo started saying. I slightly looked up, faking another small smile.

"Why...Why don't you come with us? You know, just for the first week." She asked.

Emma and Bella frowned.

"You could help us unpack at the dorm and you could give us some company to the collage party. Whats a party with out Rikki? Huh? Plus Its only the first week of collage thats fun. After that its just home work and classes and all that borning stuff." Cleo nugged me with her elbow.

She tryed to get me to smile more but I didn't.

"Come on! It'll keep your mind off of things. You know?" Bella raised an eye brow.

My smile became a bit wider as my instincts told me to go. Cleo gave me thoes puppy eyes, everyone looking at me for an answer.

"Ok. Fine. I'll go." I acted like it was a big deal.

"Yay!" Cleo gave me a short excited hug. Everyone else smiled too.

"Plus after the first week we can just return to the Gold coast and hang out for the weekend." Emma implied.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Cleo smiled.

"There's only one problem." I remembered.

"Whats that?" Cleo looked at me with concern.

"I haven't told my dad that I am pregnant." I responded. It stayed a bit silent for a few seconds.

"Why don't you just tell him when you come back?" Bella asked.

"Cause i'm tired of waiting. I feel the more I wait, the more drama i'm going to cause between me and him." I mentioned.

"Do you want us to come with you when you announce it your dad?" Bella offered.

"No. I can't. I need to do this myself. I don't think my dad would want you guys there when he finds out." I added.

Cleo shrugged her shoulder.

"So when are you telling him?" Cleo asked.

"Tonight... Possibly... If i dont flake out. I tryed telling him 3 days ago but I couldn't manage to say it." I looked down at the bed.

"I'm sorry Rikki. Maybe it could be best if you told him when you return. We could help you practice announcing it to your dad." Cleo suggested.

"It's fine. I need to pack anyways if i'm going with you guys. I'll see you later." I finally said, walking out of Emma's bedroom, down the stairs and outside her house.

The sun was already starting to set as I was heading towards the direction of the trailer. I walked on the creaky front porch and into my door. I saw my dad in the kitchen, putting away his dishes.

"Hey darling. I made some dinner. If you want any ,its in the pan over there." He pointed to, which was directly above the stove.

I gave him a small smile.

"It's fine. Ill save that for tomorrow. I already ate something over at Em's house." I explained.

"Well ok then." He nodded his head, putting the left overs in a container.

Walking towards the direction of my room, I turned around to look at my dad. At that moment, I just wanted to gush about everything that has happened to me. I knew I would just make him upset. He knows... I know I don't have enough money to raise a baby.

I slowly turned around, walking back to my dad.

"Dad." I sofly said.

He looked up to look at me.

"What is it darling?" He asked, finally putting the left overs in the kitchen.

"I need to tell you something." I came out, knowing that now was my only chance to tell him.

He walked around the kitchen and to the table where he sat down. I also sat down, taking a deep breathe.

"Dad. I know what your going to hear, will be disappointing but let me tell you, I'm really trying my hardest to fix this with out doing any stupid so if you could not yell or I dont know, I just.." But he cut in.

"Its ok Rikki. You can tell me." He gently reassured me.

I looked at him with sad eyes, trying not to flake out again. It hurt to know what was coming towards us. I swallowed hard, opening my mouth to say the two simple words.

"I'm pregnant."

It was silent for a few seconds. He looked me in my eyes, the look on his face not changing. He didn't look mad, more concerned as he stood up from the table.

"Where are you going?" I asked, getting a bit frightened from the situation.

"Wait there." He told me.

Confused, I sat there bitting my lip.

I saw him turn the corner and back into the kitchen with a clear plastic baggy. In the small bag contained a pregnant test. A positive pregnant test.

I opened my mouth in shock, not knowing how he even got a hold of that pregnancy test. He set it down on the table, taking out the chair so he could sit back down.

"I was hoping you would tell me soon." He broke the long silence.

I sat there in disappointment, knowing that i definitely screwed it up big time.

"How long have you known?" I asked.

"2 weeks." He finally admitted after a short silence.

I stared down at the positive pregnant test, me wanting to break down crying that very moment.

"I was waiting for you to tell me. I just didn't think it would take you this long." He continued. I stayed silent. "How long have you known? He asked.

"2 months... but I think I'm already 3 months pregnant." I confirmed.

He nodded his head in understanding.

"And the father?" He asked in curiosity. I do remember a long time ago when Zane and my dad met but, I doubt he would even remember him that well.

"Zane... Zane Bennet." I responded.

"Zane? Your ex-boyfriend?" My dad asked in shock.

Anger came through me as I nodded my head. I hated how everyone referred him as my ex-boyfriend. Well, he was my ex-boyfriend but to act so shocked...

"Well you do realize were in no position to raise a baby. I can't afford to pay off for this. You probably will have to give it up for adoption." He mentioned. I continued to stay silent, not knowing what to say.

"Dad. Can you ground me when I come back from the collage. I really want to go and Cleo and the girls invited me to come along..." I explained with some upsetness in my voice.

"I'm not grounding you. Im just upset that you would go off, doing something like this and then not tell me. You need to take responsibility into your own hands." He lectured.

"I will... I am. I'll get a job or something, or i'll find a family who might want to adopt. Just give me some time. I'm already under a lot of stress." I responded in frustration.

"If you think this is already stressful, then wait to til the baby is here. Now there is something to stress about." He sighed. "I just didn't want you to make the same mistake me and your mom did when we were younger. It's not easy. Yes I love you Rikki but trying to support for everyone isn't going to be a piece of cake. Especially in the type of economy that were living right now. Where will you put the crib?" He asked.

I turned my head to look at my room. I knew that it was too small to fit anything in there and that having only two bedrooms in the house wasn't going to be enough.

"I'll remove my bed and replace it with a crib. Ill sleep on the floor or in living room." I paused. "We'll thats if I decided to keep it." I finalized.

My dad stood up and towards the kitchen.

"You can go to the collage but immediately when you come back, you HAVE to have this planned out. This is serious. I don't want to end up being the 2nd parent around the house." He strictly told me.

A small smile appeared on my face, jumping out of my chair to hug my dad.

"Thanks. I promise. I'll call an adoption agency or something like that. I'll get this worked out. I'll be riding in the car with Cleo so you don't have to worry about driving me to the collage." I explained. My dad sighed with a bit of regret in his voice, but I didn't care. "Love you dad." I kissed his check, running into my room and grabbing a small bag. Immediately I opened my closet, stuffing all my clothes into the bag.

Finally a time to escape. The least thing i needed to do was sit around all day, avoiding Denman who could be outside my door step. Plus who needed to know I was pregnant when I went to the collage. For the first time in a long time, I was actually excited to go to school...

**A/N: Sorry for the long update. Been doing a lot of stuff over the summer and im pretty sure i wont be able to update that often. Well here is another chapter for the people who have been waiting for it. Thanks for all the reviews! You guys are awesome! Hugs and kisses xoxoxo :)**


	3. Off and Away

**Sophie's Pov**

I put my suitcase next to the door, grabbing the small bag containing my laptop. Today was the day, I was going to collage. I was getting a ride from Emma since I didn't have a car. I think Will was going to go with Bella and Cleo. It annoyed me how Will followed Bella around like a butler. I sometimes thought that she manipulates him.

"De-re-ring." I heard my phone go off. I instantly knew it was a text message.

I looked at my phone, seeing one new message from Emma. I haven't talked to Emma all week. Apparently she was caught up with "other stuff." Something to do with her brother, but she never exactly told me what it was though.

"Meet you over at the boat shack?" She asked. Might as well since I was already here with my bags. Obviously I wouldn't be able to carry them all the way to her house.

"Sure." I sent her a quick text. It was probably 10 seconds later that she opened the door and walked right in. I immediately spun around in shock.

"Well, that was quick." I mentioned.

"I know. I was already walking here so I just came to stop by." She explained.

"Then why did you ask if you could come over?" I asked.

"Its polite to ask before you visit someone, right?' She raised an eyebrow. I rolled my eyes.

"But no. In all seriousness. I have to tell you something." Emma walked over to me. I sat down next to where she was.

"What is it?" I looked at her.

"Rikki's pregnant." I opened my mouth.

"Oh my gosh? She's pregnant." I paused. "Why am i not that surprised?" I looked at my nails.

"With Zane's baby." Emma deviously smiled.

"WHAT?" I screamed, sitting up straight. Emma backed up from the reaction I gave out.

"I mean, what? How is she pregnant? I thought they were over for good." I partly yelled.

"Thats what I thought." Emma added.

"That slutty bitch." I mumbled to myself.

"Will thinks Zane raped her." Emma explained.

"Zane? Rapping Rikki? I didn't know Zane would take it that far. I don't think he's that type of guy." I mentioned in shock.

"Well apparently he is. I knew Zane was a bad option for Rikki." Emma rolled her eyes.

So many thoughts entered my head. How was it Rikki was pregnant? Was Zane really the type of guy who raped people? Was my whole plan being with him over? I looked over at Emma who was watching my reaction.

"Well... How do you know he raped her? Rikki could be lying. You know how she is." I snapped back.

"Rikki never mentioned anything about being raped. Will just guessed he did. I don't know what to believe cause I know how Rikki is around Zane sometimes but Zane..." She paused. "He can be bad news if your not careful." Emma crossed her legs.

I stayed silent. This was not happening. Could I be crushing on a guy who raped people? I stood up.

"Where are you going?" Em asked.

"Getting my bags. Aren't we going?" I asked.

"Well, I didn't bring the car over. My dad will come around in like 15 minutes so then you can put your stuff in the trunk." Emma got up.

"Great. Then we can just hang out. Are we sharing a dorm?" I asked.

" I requested you and me, and then me Bella and Cleo. If we dont three get in, then we will share the same room." Emma hesitated to say.

"It's fine. As long as were on the same floor of the dorms, we'll be good. I didn't even know that they let 3 people in one dorm?" I said a bit suprised.

"That's what I thought. We'll just see. Whatever happens it will be fine. Its not like were going to different schools." Emma gave a small smile.

"So true. Atleast we can request the same classes. And that collage party..." I smiled.

"Yup. I hear its huge. Not something we wanna miss." Emma headed for the door, placing her sunglasses over her face.

"Lets go Bitch." I linked arms with Emma, as she rolled her eyes and slightly walked outside, seeing Em's truck being parked out on the grass. Time for the new and improved collage life that I have been waiting for...

**Zane's Pov**

I re-read her text message. One week? Was it really that good of an idea for her to leave, especially the fact that she was pregnant? I was walking over to Rikki's place, going over to talk to her. She wasn't answering my calls which was kinda concerning me. What if she got a miscarriage? What if something bad happened to her at the collage?

I was on the sidewalk, seeing Rikki walking my direction. She was carrying a red bag which was probably full of clothes and supplies.

"Rikki." I yelled, semi- running over to her

She gave me that annoyed face expression like she always did. Now she decided to ignore me? To think we would start off with a new fresh start...

"What's that?" I asked, pointing to the bag. She stayed silent for about a minute, taking a deep breath.

"What do you think?' She looked off a different direction, not wanting to look at me.

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to go." I replied.

"Zane. This isn't your decision weather I'm going or not. I'm not staying here because you some how think its bad for the baby." She rolled her eyes.

"Ya but what happens if you get hurt or, you by accident drink some drug or alchoal someone gives you..." But she cut me off.

"Ok, this is ridiculous. I'm only going to be gone for a week. not even a week. More like 5 days. I have nothing to do here anyways. I want to at least enjoy myself, now that I don't look pregnant or have a kid." She walked a bit faster.

"Then let me come with you." She stopped walking.

"Let me get this clear in your head. No!" She snapped back. "I don't need someone to watch over me. Plus why do you care so much about this baby? You were the one who wanted to abort it when you first found out I was pregnant." She mentioned. I ignored her comment.

"I just have a bad feeling..." I continued saying. We were walking into Cleo's neighbor hood, knowing we were going to her house.

"Well there's nothing to do here anyways." She mumbled.

"You could hang out... We could hang out. We could figure what were going to do with the baby or, you could swim or whatever." I tryed thinking of things to do.

"I can't swim. Denman's back." She repied dully.

"What? She is?" I asked in shock.

Rikki ignored me. We were already near Cleo's house.

"Rikki?" I asked in concern.

"Will you leave me alone? I'm going to be gone for 5 days! Not 5 weeks! How many times do I have to explain this to you? I'll be back and then we can decide what we want to do for the baby. Ok? Just stop being so concerned." She walked faster, heading into Cleo's parking space at the entrance of her house.

I stopped following her, knowing it was no use. What if she changed her mind and decided to stay at the collage? What if she was leaving to get away from me? Did her dad kick her out or something? She told me that her dad found out about her being pregnant but never told me what his reaction was.

I haven't even had the guts to tell my dad about Rikki. I knew I was screwed once I told him, considering the fact that he wanted me to go to Harvard. He wanted me to get into classes that taught me how to run business and sales since I did so "terribly" with the cafe. Least thing I needed was someone else criticizing me.

I saw Rikki talking with Cleo as she placed her bag at the trunk of her car. I couldn't let her get away. Not like this. I needed to find out why she would just leave the Gold Coast like this. It didn't make since. She had to be kicked out of her house. Maybe she was secretly going to be staying at Cleo's dorm.

I turned around, walking back home. I needed to find out what was causing her to do this and fix it quickly, before she left for good.

**A/N: Sorry for the extremely short chapter. I've been on vacation and haven't found the time to type out my story. I'll try to make a longer chap next week. Reviews are appreciated ;)**


	4. What Lies Ahead

**Bella's Pov**

I opened the door to the dorm, which led to a medium size room. Against the walls on each corner, were two beds. On the other side of the wall, in the center, was one other bed. Immediately Cleo ran to the other side of the room, which had the bed placed in the corner, up against the wall.

"I call this bed!" Cleo shouted, diving onto the white mattress. Emma rolled her eyes.

I placed my stuff on the center bed which was on the opposite wall, Cleo's bed was on. Emma placed her stuff on the last bed, right across from Cleo's. It was perfect for the three of us. Right at the entrance of the room, on the side, there was a door that led to the bathroom. Rikki walked in the dorm and right into the bathroom. She immediately came out smiling.

"Ha, sucks for you guys. The bathtub looks too small." She crossed her arms. I immediately followed Rikki into the bathroom as I took a closer look at it.

"Its not too bad. We could manage." I mentioned.

"I mean, you always have that giant fountain at the entrance of the collage where you could take a bath." Rikki raised an eyebrow while deviously smiling. Cleo threw a pillow at her.

"Oh shut up! Your going to have to live with that bathtub for the next 5 days so Ha yourself." Cleo smiled.

'"Well at least its not all year." Rikki sat down on Bella's bed.

"I think we should unpack and meet up with the boys. Ash wants to introduce me to some of his friends." Emma opened up her suitcase.

"I think ill just leave everything in my bag." Rikki looked down, the whole bag bloated with clothes and supplies.

"What the hell did you put in there? It looks like you packed for the whole entire year. I didn't even stuff that much clothes in my bag." Cleo looked down at her small purple suitcase.

"You can never bring too much clothes. Plus now I have many outfits to choose from for that collage party were going to go to tomorrow." Rikki smiled, raising one of her eyebrows. Its like Rikki forgot about the whole situation with Zane. She was finally turning back into the old same self.

"Well your only staying here for 5 days anyways. Not much to unpack anyways." Emma explained, hanging some of her shirts on the hangers. She opened the small closet door, placing the hangers on the railing.

"You can put your bag under my bed if you want to." I offered to Rikki. I opened my suitcase, also putting my clothes in my personal closet.

"Wish I stayed here a bit longer. The idea of going back home would be soooo boring." Rikki rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Hey, at least you don't have to study for collage tests and go to classes all day." Cleo mentioned, folding her clothes neatly on the bed.

"Well at least you dont have to worry about taking care of a baby." Rikki mumbled to herself.

It went silent. No one knowing what to say. Everyone continued folding their clothes, trying to find another topic to talk about.

"Why don't we talk a break from un-packing. Im sure Lewis is doing anything but folding clothes into a closet." Cleo slightly smiled.

"I like that idea. Plus i'm kinda hungry." Rikki stood up from my bed, trying to forgot what she just said.

"Shoot." I quickly remembered, throwing my slightly folded shirt onto the bed.

"What?" Cleo looked up at me.

"I told Will I was going to meet up with him after I looked at the dorm. I shouldn't be unpacking right now." I stood up, grabbing my purse.

"How about you meet us down at the sandwich shop after your done. Were meeting Ash there." Emma exclaimed.

"Sure thing. Bye!" I walked out, shutting the door behind me.

I ran down the hall way, trying to find the stairs that led to the outside door. I was in my flip-flops, so running wasn't the easiest thing to do. I had to find the office building. That's where Will wanted to meet up. He was finding out which room was his dorm.

I walked outside, giant buildings scattered everywhere. I knew the building across from us was the boys dorms so that wasn't where I had to go. I walked on a rocky trail, sending text messages to Will, asking where he was but he wasn't responding. Where could he be?

Near the food shop, I saw a business looking building. Maybe that's where he was. I slowly entered, trying to find a sign that led to the front office. Thats when i recognized this place. This is where the music studio was. I knew after the incident, I would never be accepted into the music program. I so screwed up.

I saw many collage students walking around but no employees. I knew Will was going to kill me if I didn't find him soon. Thats when I saw a teacher walking down the stairs. Slowly approaching him, I recognized his face. He was the teacher who kicked me out of the studio when I was singing.

I backed away slowly, not wanting to see him. I made a compliete fool out myself when I was in that studio. turning around, I felt the man walking towards me. I walked faster but he continued to follow me.

"Excuse me." He finally yelled as I went to a complete stop. I turned around awkwardly, hoping he wouldn't recognize me.

"You're, you're the girl who sang at my studio a few weeks ago...?" He hesitated to ask, talking out a piece of paper. "Bella Hartley? I'm I correct?" He looked me in the eyes. I stayed silent for a minute but sighed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interfer with your music supplies. I just was fasinated..." But he cut me off.

"No no. I've been waiting forever to see you. I tried finding you a bit after you left but the head office told me you weren't around anymore." He explained.

I nodded my head in confusion. What did he want?

"Oh, by the way... I'm Head of the Music Program. " He informed, taking out his hand to shake it with mine. I awkwardly shook his hand, quickly letting go after he introduced himself.

"You are an amazing singer. You know that?" He started off.

"Excuse me?" I asked, wondering if he had the wrong person with him.

"I apologize... for my rude behavior back a few weeks ago at the studio. I have to admit, you're one of the most skilled singers I've ever heard. I also heard that you sang in a band as well?" He asked. I put my hair behind my ear.

"It was actually in a cafe. Nothing big." I quickly told him.

"Well your lucky that I got you recorded. I'm quite impressed by your singing. Now I see why the collage gave you a scholar for the Music Program." He continued to explain.

"Recorded?" I asked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Apparently one of my students forgot to turn off the recording button when they left. When you came in, I had all of your singing recorded onto a cd. I didn't actually hear it until later that day. We didn't even edit your voice and you sounded pretty good." He added.

"And that means...?" I slowly started saying.

"I'd like to see more of your singing. Maybe have a short lesson before actual collage classes start. I'm sure professors here at the collage would like to see what talents you have. It would be a great start off for a carrer." He informed me.

"Carrer?" I asked in shock.

"Don't get your hopes up. Only a few from these collages have actually made a carrer from their singing. But maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones. How about you meet up with me in 3 days for a short lesson at one o clock. I'd like to see what else you can do." He paused. "Oh by the way, great guitar playing. Something else we like to have in people." And with that, he walked away.

"A bit relived, I started walking out the building. The music teacher... liked my singing? Nothing to be completely shocked about but he seemed rather furious when talking to me a few weeks ago. Thats when I looked down at my phone.

"Oh shoot. Will." I thought. I guess i have a reasonable excuse to be late...

**Emma's Pov**

"Hi there." I smiled, giving Ash a quick kiss on the cheek. He smiled, returning the favor.

Lewis was also there, including all these other guys. Apparently Bella and Will were running "late."

"I wanted to introduce you to a few of my friends. They'll be staying over to eat lunch with us... if you don't mind." Ash explained, wrapping an arm around me.

Finally some new people to engage with. Isn't that the whole point of collage? There were 2 guys and a girl.

"This is Dan, Kimberly and James." Ash pointed out. Dan had very dark brown hair, almost the color of black and Kimberly had very curly brown hair. They were both wrapped in each others arms, amusing both of them were a couple.

James had some blondish-brown hair and looked quite muscular. Perfect blue eyes and looked very fit.

"Nice to meet you." They all quietly said, us giving them a small wave of a Hello.

I looked over at Rikki who was slightly blushing. She was looking over at James who was smiling back at her. They were the only two people here with out a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Rikki broke eye contact with him, seeing Bella and Will walking over our direction.

"Sorry. We got a bit distracted. Any one up for lunch?" Will asked, all of us walking over to a table.

"After you?" James asked, pulling out a chair for Rikki. She slightly smiled as he sat down right next to her.

Cleo and Lewis, Bella and Will, and Kimberley and Dan were all sitting at the end of the table. Me and Ash sat next to each other, which meant we were right across from James and Rikki. Rikki looked a bit uncomfortable but also had this flirty look on.

"And you are?" James asked.

"I... Uh Rikki. And... you're James?" She hesitated to ask. She blushed.

"Yes. I'm sure Ash told you about meeting us down here." James explained.

"No... Well yes. He mentioned about it before we came down. Sorry, I didn't expect anyone else to come. I just got to the collage about an hour ago." Rikki quickly explained.

"Its fine. You're boyfriend didn't come here with you?" James looked at Rikki in the eyes.

Rikki bit her lip, not knowing what to say. I gave her a weird look but she broke eye contact with me.

"Oh no. I don't have a boyfriend. I'm... single." She replied.

"Single? For such a beautiful young lady?" James acted shock, putting Rikki's hair behind her ear. She giggled.

"And you?" Rikki looked at him in the eyes.

"Sadly no. Long distance relationships never work." James explained.

"Where are you from?" I barged into the conversation, trying to keep the silence between me and Ash from being awkward.

"I came from the other side of Australia. The collages there weren't of my expectation. I heard this one was really good." James responded, looking back at Rikki who were now both deeply in one anothers eyes. What the hell was Rikki doing? She was pregnant! She shouldn't of been flirting with other guys.

"Thats too bad. It sucks when relationships dont work. I know how that feels." Rikki looked down at the floor.

"Well whatever it is, i'm sure it dosen't matter anymore. Now its the time to have fun." James gave a quick wink at Rikki, which made her smile even more.

A waiter immediately came to our table."What may I get you?" She asked.

She went down the table as each and every person order their own sandwich. It was down to us as I order a salad, not wanting to get loaded on carbs. Ash passed on the sandwich, not wanting to eat. It was down to Rikki and James.

"I'd like a Cheese, Ham sandwich with lettuce, olives, but no tomatoes. Hate tomatoes." James mentioned.

"Same here. Every time I look at a tomato it grosses me out." Rikki giggled.

"Ya which is so weird cause I love french fries with ketchup." James engaged in the conversation.

"I know? French fries are seriously the best. Now i'm getting hungry for some..." Rikki started talking but the waitor inturpted her with a cough.

"Um... I'll just have the same as James." She smiled as the waitor left the table.

"You're an interesting girl. I'd like to get to know more about you." James continued as sandwhiches were getting passed around the table.

"I guess. Not much to do around the area since i'm not really going to collage." Rikki mentioned.

"Why's that?" James asked in shock. Rikki sighed.

"Don't have enough money. Have always had issues with money in my family. Its sometimes hard when parents are split up and stuff. Haven't seen my mom ever since I was 3." Rikki explained.

"Thats terrible. I know how that feels. I've always lived in a small apartment, having a family of 5. My mom, me, and my 3 other siblings. My dad left a long time ago. Thats why i'm going to do my best to get a degree in collage and get a good paying job." James held Rikki's hand.

"Wow. Thats great. I'm sure your family will appreciate that." Rikki smiled, the both of them looking into one anothers eyes. Now, this was just wrong. Rikki needed to snap out of this whole flirting thing. She didn't come here to flirt with guys.

"So, since were the only ones here who are single... I don't imagine you have someone to go with to the collage party?" James gave a flirty smiles. She smiled back, putting her sandwich down on her plate.

"Not really. Don't have much planned since all my friends are going with their boyfriends." Rikki gave a sad smile.

"So it's a date?" James asked, Rikki looking up at him.

"Sure. Why not?" Rikki shrugged as James stood up from the table.

"Great. Can't wait to see you. Thanks for lunch bro." James shook hands with Ash, as everyone started to leave. Rikki just sat there, smiling like an idiot.

"Uh hello Juliet, Romeo has left." I snapped my hand in front of Rikki's face. She rolled her eyes at me.

"Woah! Are you crazy! Why are you having a date with him?" Cleo whispered, standing up from her chair.

"Come on. Its just one date. No big deal." Rikki started walking away from the table.

"Aren't you forgetting Zane?" Bella asked.

"Gosh. Forgot Zane. Im single." Rikki mentioned in annoyance.

"And pregnant. "Did you tell James that too?" I replied

"Atleast let me have some fun. I'm only here for 5 days. He doesn't have to know anything." Rikki snapped back, walking away from the situation.

It was a bit silent. Bella sighed, watching Rikki walk away.

"It dosnet matter. Just let her do what she wants. Its just a collage party. Right?


	5. The Collage Party

**Rikki's Pov**

I heard loud music coming from a distance but I couldn't see it. James and Ash were leading us to a giant building, since they knew were all the collage parties were at. Apparently this collage party was taken place at a sorority. The number one collage house on campus. This was the place where all the girls wanted to be at. The most popular, prettiest girls got to enter this house. Its a bit overrated for me but Cleo, Emma and Bella have been talking about entering this sorority for ages.

We walked up onto the steps where these two, dressed up girls greeted us.

"Welcome ladies to our sorority. Number one house on campus. If you want to join, meetings will be held next week." A girl handed out flyers. She had a skirt on with a light touch of make up. She was wearing high heals and had long blonde hair. The other girl looked pretty much the same except she had brown hair.

"And for you boys, we are always egard to have a bit excitement around the house." The blond chick gave a wink at Ash. He ignored it, grabbing hands with Emma. We entered the house which was packed with people dancing and talking. Everyone had alcohol in their hands and groups of people were making out in corners. There was an upstairs to the sorority but it was closed off.

"Who's ready to have a little excitement here tonight?" A man up by a microphone started talking. Everyone started yelling and screaming while holding up their alcohol glass.

"I cant hear you!" The man yelled. Everyone started screaming and laughing as the man behind him started cranking up some loud music.

The men had their arms, wrapped around the ladies, staring at their breast and trying to get closer to their bodies. The ladies just danced, moving their hips back and forth to the music. People looked drunk and some guys in the corner were playing beer pong. James took me by the hand, trying to lead me outside. Bella, Cleo and their boyfriends stayed inside as Ash and Emma tagged along.

The outside was just as noisy as it was inside. It was actually crazier. People were on top of each other, aggressively making out as loads of people were dancing. Some were having beer competitions to see how much they could drink before the passed out. There were even girls stripping in front of guys, trying to act all sexy with them.

"Some party this is." I yelled to James, the music being so loud I could barley hear myself talk.

"It's great, isn't it? All the parties during collage are like this. Want something to drink?" He asked, pointing to a table.

I knew pretty much the only thing they had was alcohol. Yes, there was punch but I wouldn't put all my faith into that drink. Most people here were under age anyways. How did the police not catch them?

I was also pregnant. This was bad in a way but I didn't want him thinking I was a chicken for not drinking alcohol. I bit my lip, knowing I couldn't resist.

"Sure." I responded, as James went to the table to grab drinks. I awkwardly waited there as guys kept staring at me.

"Here you go." James handed me a glass, he himself holding a beer.

I took a sip out of the drink, the taste being unfamiliar. I didn't mind though. It was a collage party right?

"So, you wanna dance?" He asked with a loud voice.

"Ok." I responded, putting my glass on a table so that it wouldn't spill on my hand.

He grabbed my hand, leading me to where everyone else was dancing. He took a sip from his beer, putting his hands on my hips. We both laughed, keeping beat to the music. For the first time in a long time, I was actually enjoying myself. I wrapped my arms around his neck, shaking my head back in fourth so that the curls of my blonde hair would go all over the place. He kept looking up and down my body but I didn't mind. He smiled through out the whole time.

"Hey. Wanna go somewhere more quite?" He yelled in my ear. Even with him yelling I could barley hear him.

"Ya, I am kinda of getting hot here." I mentioned, James grabbing my hand to lead me out of the group of dancing people.

There was a small, near by forest next to the sorority that we were walking to. Even from a distance, I could still feel the ground shaking from the music. There was a path into the forest that we walked to. The farther we walked, the less I could hear the party.

"Where are we going?" I asked, now being able to talk in my normal voice.

"You'll see." He replied, still grabbing onto my hand. At this point, we were so far into the forest that I couldn't see the collage party anymore. There were many trees and branches that we walked through, making it hard to see.

"Are you sure its a good idea to go out here?" I asked, looking back.

"Oh come on. It's perfectly safe. There's no bears or anything like that if that's what your asking." James reassured me.

I continued walking, not wanting to look like a baby. Sure, I wanted to go some where quite but why did we have to go all the way out here.

"OK. Were here." James finally said.

There was a small grassy area where we could sit down. It wasn't that big, just a small circle but at least it wasn't covered in dirt or branches. I walked into the grassy area, letting go of James hand.

"Sit." James kindly told me. I slowly did what he said as he sat down next to me. Immediately after sitting down, he grabbed onto my hand again.

"There. Now we can finally talk with out being interrupted by loud music." James chuckled. I slightly smiled. He looked me into the eyes, knowing something was wrong.

"Are you ok?" He asked, using his finger to rub my hand.

"Ya, I'm fine. Just dealing with a few problems in my life. That's all." I responded, tempted to tell him I was pregnant, but i knew if I did, I would blow it.

"Its okay. I can fix all of your problems." James gave a flirty smile, and with that, he leaned in to kiss me.

A bit shocked, I just sat there but I also started kissing him back. His lips were warm and I felt his arm, crawling up my leg. He scooted closer to my body, grabbing onto my arm. I immediately pulled back.

"Look. This is sweet and all but... I can't."I confessed.

"what's wrong babe? Its just one kiss." The sound of his voice going deep. His eyes looked unsatisfied and he gave me an uncomfortable look.

"You know. I think we should go back." I responded after a long silence, wanting to stand up but he pulled me back down onto the grass.

"What's there to be scared of. Im right here..." James touched my leg, leaning forward to kiss me again.

I jolted back, not wanting to be touched but he aggressively grabbed my arm. I yanked myself out of his grip trying to get away from him. He got closer to my body, trying to get ontop of me but I pushed him away.

"Get away from me!" I sternly yelled, but he didn't listen.

He wrapped his arms around my body, putting himself ontop of me. He aggressively opened my legs and layed his body in between there. He used all his power to keep me on the ground as I tryed to kick him back.

"Stop!" I yelled loudly but instead, he punched me right in the face. Immediately I felt my lip started to bleed.

He grabbed onto my wrist and pinned them above my head, using all of his force to keep me on the ground.

"No! No! Stop. NO!" I yelled, kicking and screaming but I was too far away from the party for anyone to hear.

He used one of is hands to pin both of my wrists up, using the other hand, to unbuckle his belt.

"Please dont! No!" I yelled and panicked, trying to get out of his grip. I tryed everything to kick him but my legs were already underneath his body.

"Dont be a little bitch!" He yelled at me, using his hand to yank my blonde curly hair.

I yelled, trying to hold back my tears. So much pain was going through both of my wrist as he kept putting all his body pressure onto them.

I felt him trying to yank down my shorts as I was struggling so hard to get away from him. His body was to heavy for mine and he was squishing me. At this point, I had no choice.

I twisted my fingers in such a way that it would touch the top of his hand. I curled my fingers, trying to burn him. James was so shocked by the heat, that he let go of my wrist.

"AH!" He yelled, grabbing onto his hand. Immediately, I jolted up and pushed him off of me.

I didn't have time to stand up since he was right behind me. I tryed as fast as I could to crawl away but he grabbed onto my ankle.

"You're going to pay for that!" He yelled, dragging my body towards him. I was trapped. I had no way out. I felt him trying to pin me down again and with that, I heard something running towards us.

"GET AWAY FROM HER YOU SON OF A BITCH!" The familiar voice ran through my head and with that, someone had tackled James onto the ground.

I turned around just in time to see Zane punching James right on the face. I tryed crawling away from the situation but my wrists were in too much pain.

Zane was on top of James, punching him multiple times in the face. Blood came from James noise and his lip was all bloody. With the muscle strength James had, he wacked Zane in the stomach which made him roll onto the ground.

"NO! STOP!" I yelled, terrified by what was going on. Zane didn't accept that. He rolled right onto of James, punching him even harder in the face. He also kneed James into the stomach, making James react aggressively from the situation. He slammed Zane extremely hard in the face, which caused Zane to roll off of him.

James got above Zane, also punching him in the face. Zane grabbed his arm, and with that, he used all his energy to wack him in the chin. James was knocked down on the ground, so injured he could barley stand up. Zane lastly came up to him and kicked him in the grin which made James roll around on the floor in pain. He weakly got up and ran away from the situation. Zane sat there injured, his fists all bruised up and his eye a bit swallon.

I sat there with shock, trying to process all that had happened into my brain. Zane weakly got up, trying to act tough but I knew he was probably in a lot of pain. He looked at me, his brown eyes full of concern. He ran over to where I was, making sure that I wasn't hurt.

"Are... are you ok?" Zane asked, offering a hand to help me up but I rejected it. I held onto my wrists, getting off the ground myself.

I stood up, my legs a bit hurt from James sitting on me and my lip was still slightly bleeding. Zane cautiously approached me but I jolted away from him. I didn't need his help. I was perfectly capable for taking care of myself. It was silent, Zane still looking at me.

"Ok... First of all... What the hell are you doing here?" I yelled at him. He stayed silent, breaking eye contact with me. All you could hear was the wind and a bit of the music that was playing at the collage party. He sighed.

"I was... just making sure you were ok." Zane truthfully responded, looking at me in the eyes. I shook my head in disbeilf.

"So you followed me here so that you could spy on me?" I snapped back at him.

He stayed silent.

"You are unbelievable..." I mumbled.

"I just didn't want you to get hurt and, I thought you were leaving for good and I know it was stupid but, I just needed to find out what was going on." He explained.

I looked at the ground, staying silence. I observed my injured wrists, pain still going through my face when James punched me. Zane shook his head.

"Come on. I'm taking you home." He grabbed my arm but I roughly yanked it away from him.

"I don't need protecting! Im capable of taking care of myself!" I snapped at him.

"Oh really? So your idea is to come here, hook up with guy and hope nothing bad happens?" He paused. "You could of been raped." He yelled.

"That's none of your business. You shouldn't of been here in the first place. Can't you put a little trust in me!" I yelled.

"Oh. So now I can trust you, while your hooking up with other guys!" He screamed.

"Well maybe we wouldn't be here in the first place, if you weren't the one who kissed Sophie!" I yelled and with that, it went silent.

Zane curled up in his fist, the anger in his eyes building but, he didn't do anything. He nodded his head, sadness sweeping over him.

"I'm glad thats how you think of me. I knew it was a stupid idea to come here." Zane mumbled to himself, simply turning around and walking away.

I stood there in shock. Some part of me wanting to go after him but I just stood there. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to curl up in a ball, fall asleep and just simply die. Everything was falling apart. Why did things have to happen like this? Was it really me that messed up this time? My life coming a complete blur...

**Cleo's Pov**

I was walking along side of Lewis, staring at the stars. He held my hand, smiling at me. It was so peaceful here and so much better than staying at that obnoxious collage party. The campus here was wonderful and there were so many things I was looking forward to do in collage.

"So, your still thinking about joining that sorority?" Lewis teased. I rolled my eyes, giving him a playful punch in the shoulder.

"You liked that collage party. I know it." I smiled.

"So did you. You were the one who wanted to dance in front of everyone." He mentioned, making both of us laugh.

It stayed silent, me looking back up at the stars which reminded me of my diamond ring.

"I love you Lewis." I whispered, making it hard for him to hear but he did. I wrapped my arms around his neck, leaning in to kiss him.

"I love you too... Even though you sometimes dance like a chicken." Lewis teased making me gasp.

"Oh shut up! I do not dance like a chicken. Its more like your the chicken since you don't even want to dance." I laughed.

"I do but not in front of everyone. You know how that can be." Lewis teased. I once again, leaned in to kiss him. His tongue was warm and he wrapped his arm around my back. After 20 seconds I pulled back.

"I'll see you tomorrow for breakfast?" I smiled, letting go of his hand so that I could enter the building where my dorm was.

I went up the hall way and to my room. I went to grab my keys but behind me I saw Emma and Bella linking arms. They were talking and laughing and they both looked a bit drunk.

"Hey guys. How was the party?" I asked, unlocking the door so we could enter the room.

"Awesome! Me and Ash danced the whole time. Never knew he was in that kinda stuff." Emma smiled. We all laughed, entering into the dorm. There we saw Rikki sitting on Bella's bed. She quickly stood up, walking into the bathroom.

"Hey Rikki?" Bella said but she didn't respond back.

"Cleo..." We heard Rikki's voice, coming from the bathroom. "Do you have make up?" She asked. I frowned. Rikki? Make up? Since when did she wear that? Maybe she feels the urge to wear it cause of James or something.

"You mean like mascara?" I asked. Both Emma and Bella were frowning too.

"No, like cream that's the same color of your skin?" She replied.

"Like to cover up pimples?" I awkwardly asked.

"Something like that." Rikki hesitated to respond.

I dug out my purple suitcase, trying to find my cream bottle. Once I did, I entered into the bathroom. Rikki immediately hid her face with her hands. That's when I saw that her wrists were all bruised up.

"What happened?" I asked in concern, putting the cream bottle down on the counter. She slowly removed her hand from her face and she looked a bit bruised up.

"And your face? Are you ok?" I looked at her but she immediately grabbed the cream bottle, covering up her injuries. She even used the cream to put on her wrist.

"I'm fine. Thats all i needed. Thanks." Rikki faked a smile but her sad eyes gave it away. You could barley even tell the injuries were there after she used the cream.

Rikki walked to Bella's bed and lied down. She looked sad and exhausted.

"Whats up with her?" Emma whispered.

"She... she had bruises on her face and her wrist. That's why she asked to borrow the skin colored cream." I responded.

"What? Why was she bruised up?" Bella asked.

"She probably washed away all the cream when she took a bath..." Emma concluded.

I frowned. "What do you mean?" I asked. Bella's eyes went wide open.

"Oh my gosh, your not talking about when Zane raped her?" Bella whispered. Emma shushed her, hoping Rikki didn't hear what she said.

"So that's how she has been hiding it. Shes used cream to hide the bruises on her face and wrist." I said. It finally made since. Bruises did last for long periods of time. I one time had a bruise on my knee for over 3 months.

Will was right. Zane did rape Rikki. And this time we have proof. We had to fix the problem. We couldn't just let him get away like this. Not anymore...


	6. The Secret Spot

**Will's Pov**

I gave the man some money, turning around with two hot coffees in my hand. Both of them were steaming chocolate mocha's. They smelled really good from what I could tell.

"And here you go." I smiled, handing the second coffee to Bella.

"Aw. Thank you."She smiled, planting a kiss on my check. It was a rather chilly this morning, there was bit of fog everywhere and it was quite cloudy. I saw Cleo and Emma walking from their dorm building. They both had a light sweater on, standing close to each other so that they could keep warm. They were talking quietly, both of them looking a bit tired.

"Cleo, Emma!" Bella slightly yelled, so that she could catch their attention. They turned around, smiling. I wrapped my arms around Bella to also keep her warm. She didn't bring a sweater and neither did I.

"Hey guys." Cleo softly said, her voice sounding a bit squeaky.

"Hey... I thought you guys were gonna come here 30 minutes ago for coffee and breakfast." I questioned.

"Sorry. We both kinda slept in." Emma mentioned, rubbing her eyes. They looked like a mess, both of their hair's being a bit frizzy and wavy.

"So are you guys going to get breakfast or at least coffee? Class starts at 7:45." I asked, looking at the clock.

"I think were both going to wait til after period 1 class ends. I'm not really that hungry anyways." Emma softly said.

"I almost forgot how it feels like to wake up early in the morning. Rikki's so lucky to sleep in. She didn't even bother to get out of bed." Cleo crossed her arms from the slight wind that was going outside.

"Well lets just look at our schedules and see what class we have now. I think trying to find a class room in this big of campus, is going to take at least more than 15 minutes to find." Bella responded.

"Right." Cleo yawned, weakly trying to find her schedule in her pocket.

"Hey guys!" Lewis ran up to us with a smile. He didn't look the tiniest bit tired and he looked all ready for class. "Woah. What happened to you two?" Lewis asked, giving Cleo a gentle kiss on the check.

"Great. That's how every girl wants to be greeted in the morning." Emma slightly closed her eyes.

"Sorry. How are you?" Lewis rubbed Cleo's back.

"Tired. Lets just go to class already. I'm freezing out here." Cleo complained, Lewis wrapping an arm around her.

Everyone opened their schedule, looking at the classes that was listed down on the paper. I looked down at Bella's schedule, comparing it with mine. Sophie immediately joined the group, also holding a cup of coffee.

"By the way. If your trying to find your class, it will be in building C. That's where all the freshman classes are." She mentioned, staring down at my schedule.

"I have calculus first. What about you guys?" Emma asked, folding her paper back up into a square.

"I have Advanced English Literature." Cleo mentioned, looking back up at everyone.

"Awesome. Me and Will also have that first." Bella smiled.

"Hey. Don't forget me." Lewis teased Cleo but she remained with a serious tired face.

"Great. I'm I the only one here who doesn't have Advanced English Literature as their first class?" Emma complained.

"Don't worry Em. Me and you have Calculus together. I know where the classroom is. Come on." Sophie linked arms with Emma, both of them walking away into the fog.

I dropped my schedule to the side, staring back at everyone. "Ok then. Building C it is." I mentioned. We all started walking down the large rocky rode. There were many other collage students scattered everywhere, trying to find their classes too. The collage buildings looked like giant libraries. It took us a while to find building C but we finally did. We entered, trying to find the room number that matched to our schedule.

"Hey guys! Over here." Lewis yelled across the hall. We entered into the classroom, or room I should say. It looked like a movie theater with all the seats lined up. At the front, was a huge screen which was connected to the teachers computer. There was a man with brown hair, looking at files and paper work while all the other collage students were settling down.

We took the seats in the middle of the room, putting our bags down on the floor. There were at least 50 collage students sitting down and talking. On the screen, it mentioned about clipboards being underneath our chairs. We all took the clipboards out, finding a packet that was clipped onto it.

"Everyone! May I please have your attention!" The teacher said in a loud stern voice. Immediately everyone went silent, a few still goofing around in the front row seats.

"I'm Mr. Gerix. Not Mr. Girts, Not Mr. Gery but Mr. Gerix. Understand?" He announced, now everyone being completely silent. "Good. This is Advanced English literature. If you do NOT think your capable of achieving this class then please leave right now!" He put his hands, behind his back. Everyone remained in their seats.

"If you haven't taken English Literature 1 or as I like to call, the dumb dumb class, then I am sure you WILL fail. If you do not know the meaning of conjugate which is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principle parts by infliction, or you dont know how to spell the word "ambiguity", then I recommend you leave this very minute because obviously, you don't have the brains to know the commen grammatical words of the English dictionary.!" He paused to look at everyone. Nobody said a word.

"Wow. Some class." Bella mummbled.

"Good. Now may everyone turn to page 42 in their packets." My Gerix commanded, everyone doing what he said.

Immediately I saw Cleo nudge Bella's arm. She turned around as she whispered something into her ear. I tried to understand what the teacher was talking about but to be honest, I was so lost on his explanation for things.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, turning around to face Bella. She looked a bit concerned and so did Cleo.

"We need to tell you something." She told me. I frowned, seeing the teacher walking back and forth across the room, talking about nonsense that probably no one could understand.

"What is it?" I asked, placing my clipboard on my lap.

"It's Rikki..." Bella paused, making sure the teacher didn't see them talking. "Yesterday she took a bath and it washed away all of her skin make up." She mentioned. I frowned, not knowing what she meant by that.

"And that's bad because?" I asked.

"There were bruises all over her wrists and face. Apparently she was hiding them from... you know... When Zane rapped her." Cleo added. So it was true. That sick son of a bitch did rape Rikki. What I didn't understand was, why was Rikki trying to hide it so badly.

"Did you ask her about them?" I whispered to them.

"No. We didn't want to upset her. Obviously she's hiding that she got rapped. There's no doubt about it. Why would she pack a whole bag of clothes? Probably to stay away from Zane." Bella concluded.

"That's terrible! Shouldn't we report it to the police?" Lewis asked.

"But Zane has something against us. What if he tells everyone about us being mermaids? Not only would Zane be locked up, but so would we." Cleo whispered a bit loudly.

"But he can't just continue living like this! We need to stop him before it gets any..." and immediately I heard a coughing noise behind us. I turned around to see the teacher looking right at us.

"Would you four like to announce whats so important? I'm sure the whole entire class would like to hear about this." The teacher raised an eyebrow. We all stayed silent.

"No. Well then stop talking! You can talk outside of class, during lunch, or any other time but here is not the time. If you can't take this class seriously, then you may step outside. We came here to learn! Not gossip about nonsense! It will never take you any where in life. Got it?" He snapped at us."And by the way, were on page 45 now, not page 42 if you were paying attention." He gave us a death glare, walking back down the steps to the front of the class.

We all skimmed to page 45, looking up at the screen and to the teacher.

"So what do we do?" Bella asked after a long silence. Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what to reply. There was one thing for sure, Zane was not going to get away with this, no matter how much he tried to deny it.

**Rikki's Pov**

It was 11 in the morning. I was sitting in front of all the food shops, waiting for the girls and boys to finish with their science class. I felt like loser, sitting down all by myself. Everyone else were with friends, laughing, talking, or studying.

That's when I saw him. James was in front of the juice shack, flirting with this other blond chick. They were laughing and holding hands. He would whisper things into her ear which made her giggle. I rolled my eyes, knowing now that he was just a player.

The blonde chick had long straight hair and she was wearing high heels and a mini skirt. They both grabbed a juice, sitting down to drink it.

"He's a dreamer, isn't he?" I heard a voice behind me. Confused, I turned around to find a girl with short brown hair. "But don't bother. He isn't worth your time." The girl walked around the table to sit across from me.

"And you are?" I asked.

"Oh. Sorry. I'm Lexi. I'm one of Kimberly's friends. She ate lunch with you the other day, if you didn't remember. She told me that James invited you to the collage party." Lexi explained.

"Ya, he did. But like you said, James isn't worth your time." I mumbled. Lexi slightly smiled, staring at James who was flirting with the other girl.

"So where did James take you while at the collage party?" Lexi asked.

"Why do you care so much? If this is some way for to try to get close to James then it won't happen. Me and James aren't even in speaking terms anymore." I snapped at her.

Lexi shook her head. "I'm just curious. I'm James ex-girlfriend. We only dated for a month until the spring party happened." She mentioned. "I really thought I knew James. He was everything a girl imagined to have as a boyfriend. He's a charmer too, but that's just his way of trapping girls in." She explained.

I shook my head. "What the hell are you talking about?" I laid back in my chair.

"You mean James didn't take you to his "secret spot"? Lexi asked surprised."That's where he takes all his dates to. Everyone thinks that the "secret spot" is one of James romantic places, but it isn't." The expression on Lexi's face changing.

"You... you mean? I'm not the only one?" I asked shock. Lexi sadly frowned.

"Never trust a guy who's too nice. Who knows. They probably just want whats in your pants." She raised an eyebrow, walking away from the table.

I frowned, feeling like an idiot. Why was James doing this? What was he exactly trying to prove? Why didn't anyone report James to the police? I turned around, looking back at him. He was laughing and smiling, treating the blonde chick like some princess.

Now I understood why no one reported him to the police. James was too nice to even look like a rapist. Even if a girl did report him, no one would believe her. I looked away, trying to forgot about him, but it was doing me no good.

James needed a taste of his own medicine. But how? I knew whoever that girl James was talking to, was going to be his next victim. I immediately took out my iPhone, searching through my contacts list. This time, James wasn't going to get away with this.

"_Hey there. Sorry about the other night. Let me make it up to you. Meet me at your dorm room... tonight_. " I typed up the text message, and with that, I pressed send.

**A/N: Thank you guys sooo much for all the reviews you gave me on my last chapter! You inspire me to write my stories! Ill try to update again this week! Thanks again for everything ;) XOXOXO**


	7. Revenge

**Rikki's Pov**

The wind was slightly blowing against my face, the sound of crickets coming from a short distance. It was dark and the only source of light I had, were from the stars and moon. I was heading towards the direction of the boy's dorm building, the tense in my stomach, building up into a knot. Everyone was settling down for the night, building lights slowly turning off, one by one.

I thought I heard some footsteps, immediately turning around to look behind me but, no one was there. I started walking faster towards the building, crossing my arms from the cold weather, here on this chilly night. There in the front of the building, was a lobby. I slowly opened the door, entering the small quite room. There was a desk up at the front, a sign saying it was closed.

There in the corner of a lobby, were bunch of guys, looking at text books and sheets of paper. They were quietly talking and laughing, too busy to notice I was there. I had to do this secretly. Girls weren't allowed in the dorms here at night.

Walking fast, but silently, I opened a door that led up to the stair case, James being of the 2nd floor. There were a few lights on the ceiling, but just enough to see. All I could hear was the creaking of the stairs, while going up them.

There it was, a white sign with bold black letters saying "**Floor 2**". I opened the door, making sure there was no one walking down the halls to catch me. Knowing it was safe, I entered into the hall ways, slowly closing the door behind me.

"Room 238." I silently reminded myself. Some part of me wanted to run back down stairs, the other part of me knowing I had to do this, for the sake of the other girls who have been raped before.

I walked down the skinny hall way, looking on both sides for his room number. One side had all the even numbers, the other one containing all the odd room numbers. Half way through walking, I caught the number "238". My stomach turned even faster, my hands curling up from the tension. I took out my phone, smiling at the text message I received. I wasn't the only one coming here tonight...

I quickly knocked on the door, making sure no one heard me. 10 seconds later, the door barged open. There was James, wearing some long baggy tan shorts and a light blue t-shirt.

"And I thought you weren't going to come." James said, his voice, almost sounding like a whisper.

"I don't make promises for nothing." I replied, not adding any source of expression on my face.

"Well are you going to stand there or come in." He asked, the voice he had, getting deeper and darker. I took a silent deep breath, walking into his dorm room. There were two beds, the other one empty.

"And your room mate?" I asked, my voice being a bit shaky.

"Oh, he? I took care of him." A smile drawing onto James face. Not a pleasant smile, but the smile of satisfaction.

"So, what changed your mind... Rikki?" He asked, closing the door behind him. That's when he immediately locked it shut.

"About the other day... It was a mistake. My stupid ex-boyfriend... He can be such a pain sometimes. I was just... shocked about what happened at the collage party... i'm here to pay you back." I lied.

He continued to smile. "Smart girl. Other girls would of been... stupid enough to run away from situations like that." He got closer to me. I didn't back away. I stood up stiff and tough. "So, should we get this started?" He leaned his body, all the way up against mine.

I smiled, knowing now was the time to play along. With that, I took off my coat, leaving me in a black, sexy shirt. It had small sparkels at the bottom and there at the top, curved along side to show a hint of my breast. I dropped the coat on the floor, getting closer to James.

I placed my cold hand, on his bare face, slowly leaning in to kiss him. He wrapped his arms, along side my back, leading me to the bed. He gently took both of my straps, and slowly put it below my shoulders. I continued playing along, unbuttoning his shirt.

You could see a shiver going across his body, but he continued to smile. I placed my hand, on his chest, completely removing his shirt. I threw it across the room, continuing to kiss him. I tryed getting him more onto the bed, his arms tightly wrapping around me.

Using both my hands, I placed them on both of his muscular arms, acting like I was feeling them. I stretched out his arms above him, and with that, I grabbed two metal cuffs that were buckled onto my white shorts. I wrapped both cuffs above the railings of the bed, snapping them on both of his wrists.

The expression on his face turned into utter shock. He tryed moving both his hands and arms, but, he obviously failed.

"Oh don't worry. This is just part of it." I smiled, moving my hands down his muscular arms, and back onto his chest. A small smile was still on his face, a bit of slight confusion still printed onto it.

I moved my face towards his ears, slightly nibbling on his ear lobe. "Im going to give you an experience you'll never forget." And with that, I blew into his ear. There, a smile formed on his face. He moved around a bit to get more comfortable, but the cuffs above him were getting in the way of him doing that.

I got off of him, leaving him cuffed on the bed shirtless. "You know what. I'll be right back. I need to go get something." I faked a smile, walking away from the situation. There I opened the door to his dorm, letting a tall man walk in.

I led him to the room where James was laying on the bed. James immediately frowned, not knowing what was going on.

"James. This is Tandaur. Tandaur, this is James." I introduced him, leaving James completely speechless. Tanduar looked two times stronger than James and he looked darker and tanner. He had black hair and you could tell he had a lot of upper body strength. Comparing Tanduar to James, made James look like a whimp.

"Ok, what's going on Rikki!" James yelled at me. I sighed, crossing my arms.

"Tanduar needed some... sexual favors. You know. I thought you would be perfect for him since your so much into having sex." I shrugged.

"I'm not gay!" James yelled.

"Oh. Oops. Didn't know that. Oh well. I already promised you anyways." I smiled, giving a single to Tanduar that he could do whatever he wants to James. Tanduar got onto of the bed, removing his shirt. James eyes went wide open, struggling to get off the bed but the cuffs kept him down.

"No! Don't do this Rikki!" James yelled.

"Oh and im sure you gave those girls some mercy when you raped them, right?" I raised my eyebrow. James stopped struggling from the cuffs.

"I don't know what your talking about!" He yelled.

"Well what about Lexi? You're ex-girlfriend and all the other dates you had? It's a bummer you can't go to the police after this. Obviously I have more proof that you rapped people than you have. Plus who's the police going to believe, me? or you?" I raised any eyebrow. James opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

"Have fun you two." I smiled, waving my hand a bit to say good-bye. With that, Tanduar started unzipping James pants as James to struggle. Tanduar took a nife out, putting it to his neck while removing the rest of his clothes.

"NO! STOP DON'T DO THIS! RIKKI!" He yelled, but I walked away, closing the door behind me and out into the hallway.

"Revenge is sweet." I deviously smiled, putting the coat on myself again. "and oh ya." I paused, thinking to myself. "Remember, a guys number one weakness is girls. Nothing can beat that." I walked away into the hall way, and towards the staircase. Nothing is better than receiving the taste of your own medicine...

**A/N: He-He! Any one see that coming? Idk, haha! Just wanted to say thanks so much for the reviews! I've already reached my 100 review mark! Im so thankful for all the reviewers out there and I know I say this every time but really, It means the world! Ill try to make a longer chap next time. Thanks for reading :)**


	8. Messed up

**Cleo's Pov**

"Ok, so if "X" equals 27 divided by "Y", then shouldn't the answer be 36 divided 2.38? or wouldn't Y be the square root of 25.43, making the answer 5.042?" I asked, looking at Emma and Bella. Emma was writing in her journal taking notes, while Bella was looking at the wall, twirling her hair.

"Guys?" I asked again, annoyed nobody was listening.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm calculating this in my head." Emma quickly replied, dotting down the equation in her math book.

"Bella?" I snapped in her face, trying to get her to stop day dreaming.

"Ya, wait what?" She quickly came back to reality, looking back at her notebook. "So the answer was 27.3 divided by the square root of 45.6?" Bella asked, acting like she knew what we were talking about.

"Were already on problem 23. We figured that one out way long ago. Haven't you been paying any attention?" I flipped through Bella's notes.

"Sorry. All this math is getting to my head." Bella snatched back the math book.

"Nope. The answer is 42.8 since X equals 5, correct?" Emma asked.

"What are you talking about?" I looked at her paper. "Were not even at that problem yet. Were still on problem 23." I complained.

"Ok, maybe we should take a break from this." Bella mentioned.

"I agree." Emma responded, dropping her calculator and pencil on her binder.

"But we still have to do section 15-17 in our math books. Were never going to get it done if we keep it up at this pace." I lectured.

"Oh come on. We have all weekend to finish this up." Bell reassured me.

"It's Saturday night. We only have tomorrow and then we have to return back to collage. Unless we work on this all day tomorrow and work on Advanced English Literature all tomorrow night, we might be able to get this done with out the teacher getting mad at us." I explained.

"Don't we also have chemistry as well?" Emma looked in her planner.

"See, that's why we need to finish math tonight and every thing else tomorrow." I layed on my stomach, trying to get comterbol.

"I'm board. Do you think it's too late to go out to Mako?" Bella asked, looking at her finger nails.

"We don't want to explain this to you this for the 10th time, but if Denman for any chance has under water camera, were all going to be sushi." I snapped back.

"Denman, Denman, Denman! What's so bad about this lady anyways? From what Rikki told me, shes just this stupid blonde chick." Bella huffed.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Thats just Rikki. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one who started swimming first. Thats why we need to keep a close eye on her." Emma looked back at her math book.

"Yes. We don't want to be caught again. Last time was just horrible." A shiver went down my back.

"I think you two are being paranoid. Not even Rikki seems annoyed with this "Denman" chick." Bella rolled her eyes.

"Were not being paranoid! Were trying to keep you safe. Were trying to keep ourselves safe. If one of us slips up and goes diving in the water, who knows what the consequences will be." Emma harshly told Bella.

"Ok. Ok. I get the point. No swimming..." She paused, thinking deeply for a few seconds. "But I don't get it, there are always marine biologist around the Gold Coast. Why do we have to specifically avoid her?" Bella continued asking questions.

"Because she knows about our past and i wouldn't be surprised if she tryed finding out about us again. Now stop asking questions. The least thing I want to discus is this." Emma pointed out.

"Your right. Cause im sure you sooooo wanna talk about math right now." Bella sarcastically responded. Emma gave her the death glare.

"You know what. I'm going down stairs to get some juice. Any one want some?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

Both Bella and Emma nodded silently. I took a deep breath, walking out of my room. The fact that we haven't swam in over 3 weeks was driving us insane. I wonder how Rikki was cooperating with all of this.

I entered into the kitchen, walking towards the refrigerator. The lights were on down stairs, meaning Dad and Sam just came back from dinner. Kim was at a sleep over so surely it wasn't her.

The felt the cold air swift into my face as I opened the door to the fridge. There on the 2nd shelf. I saw 3 bottled orange juices. I grabbed two juices with one hand and left the reaming juice in my other hand. I closed the fridge with my foot, running out of the kitchen. Immediately I ran into dad, right before I got to the stair case.

He looked at me with sad eyes, slowly walking out of my path.

"Hi dad." I faked a smile, trying to get him to talk to me but he quickly turned around, walking away from the situation. He has been giving me the silent treatment all week. Not once did he call to see how I was doing at my new collage.

I sighed, walking up the stair case. I didn't understand. Never has my dad hated Lewis. Sure my dad could sometimes be a bit strict with Lewis but it wasn't in a hatful way. They both seemed to get along the last time I recalled.

Did my dad not trust Lewis? Was my dad right and think I am too young to get married? I mean, Dad got married with Mom when they were 24. I don't think getting married at 20 or 21 is a huge difference.

I turned the corner to get into my room, Bella and Emma both talking about math again.

"Here are you juices." I put on a fake cheerful act.

"Thanks. I haven't even had dinner yet." Bell mentioned, taking a sip from out of the bottle.

"Oh, I didn't know. Do you want me to make a sandwich for you or something?" I asked, opening my juice.

"No it's fine. Ill probably just have a small snack when I get home." She mentioned, closing up the container and placing it down on the bed.

"Di-ling-ding." Bella's phone went off, the sound breaking the slinence among the 3 of us. She picked it up, slightly smiling from who it was.

"Hey, Will is inviting us to have lunch at the brestil shop tomorrow. This would be a good time to catch up." Bella suggested.

"As long as we atleast finish our homework. Look how much we have to finish." Emma sternly pointed out.

Me and Bella started laughed, making Emma frown.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing. Your just funny how your so concerned about your homework. You are such a nerd." I elbowed Emma on the side of her stomach.

"Hey, so are you." She smiled, picking up her pencil and calculator.

"Ok, so what was the answer of X?" Emma asked, looking down at the equation. Thats when Bella started day dreaming and twirling her hair again. Back at where we started...

**Will's Pov**

We were all walking down the side walk which was placed right along the beach. Everyone was talking and laughing, enjoying the nice sunny day. All except for Rikki. I know right now I should be talking with Bella, keeping her company but having Rikki walking right behind us, made me feel... bad.

She was now wearing long shorts and her shirt was now a little loose at the front, to keep it so that it didn't make her look pregnant. Her arms were crossed and she was looking at the ground. You could even tell there was small little bruise on the corner of her eyes.

All the pain she must be going through. I feel like shes been separating herself from the rest of us. I didn't blame her though. It must be embarrassing, she couldn't even admit what happened.

"So then after words, I totally fell down right in front of everyone and people were staring at me. It was so embarrassing." Emma explained, making Cleo and Bella laugh.

"So much for your trip to paris. Hey, atleast you didn't trip off the iffel tower." Bella teased, all of them laughing and linking arms.

Rikki contined walking behind them, the laughing and talking not making her feel any better.

I slowed down my pace to get next to the girls. Lewis was also behind Cleo, his arms wrapped around her stomach.

"Hey." I softly said, Rikki looking up at me. She gave a small smile, not lasting long."So, how have you been? Are you feeling any better from your morning sickness?" I asked.

"Oh that. Morning sickness left me ages ago. I'm doing better... I guess." Her blond hair blowing in the wind.

"Well thats good." I responded, about to bring up something funny that happened at collage but I kept my mouth shut. I knew talking about collage experiences was also not something that was going to bring up her mood.

"Are you going to come to the collage next week again?" I asked, trying to bring up a conversation.

"No. I dont think i'm really allowed to stay there unless I'm registered to the collage. The woman who runs the dorms only let me visit for the week. Plus I think I need to start looking for a job or something. I really dont have the budget to buy stuff for the..." She stopped, not wanting to say the word.

"The baby?" I asked, looking at her in concerned.

she swallowed hard and nodded her head. "Ya, that." She quietly responded.

"Well if you ever need help, or need anything, you can always ask me." I reasured her, giving her a hopful smile.

She continued crossing her arms, the girls in front of us laughing at another story Emma was telling them.

Immediately that's when it caught my eye. The figure of a man was walking towards us. Not just any man. It was Zane. Everyone was too busy to notice him walking along the side walk. Even Rikki was spacing off, looking at different direction of the beach.

The closer he got, the more uncomfortable I was. Hopfully he would just walk by with out saying anything. He might not even do that. Over all, he had a big mouth for a jerk like him.

I saw Zane walking towards the group, Rikki looking up at him in a uncomfortable way. She tryed to hide her face with her hair but it obviously didn't work. He walked straight towards her.

"Hey Rikki. We need to talk." Zane went infront of her. Immediately Lewis and the girls noticed Zane and stopped to stare at him. They all gave him dirty looks.

"Not now." Rikki mumbled, trying to walk away from him but instead, Zane grabbed her arm.

"Look. Just give me a minute to sort things out." His grip around her getting tighter. Thats when Rikki started fighting back.

"I said not now!" She snapped back, trying to escape the grip. Thats when I went to Rikki and pulled her away from Zane.

"She said she doesn't want to talk to you. Now scat." I aggressively told Zane. He stood straight up, giving me the death glare.

"This is none of your buinsess fish boy." Zane tryed to keep his voice down, walking up to Rikki again but I blocked his way.

"Leave her alone. Why can't you get it through your small pea brain that she wants nothing to do with you!" I yelled at him.

"Oh and whats with you all of sudden? Are you now her body guard or something?" Zane yelled back.

"Guys. This is not the place and time." Bella grabbed my arm but I didn't budge. I wasn't going to let Zane off the hook this easily.

"You really have no respect for her, do you? You just go off doing whatever you want, hoping everything will go your way. Well it wont! You go near her again and I swear I will make your life a living hell!" I snapped back at Zane.

"Oh so now your threatening me? What happened with the good boy act? I bet you couldn't even try to make my life hell, even if you tryed." Zane curled up his fists.

"Guys. Its not worth it." Cleo yelled, Lewis still standing behind her.

"So why don't you do yourself a favor and fuck off." Zane mumbled, pissed at the way I was treating him.

"Why don't you get out of my face, "In-Zane!" I yelled and Gave Zane a little push on the chest.

With that, Zane fell back a couple of steps and looked up. This was not going to be pretty. Zane immediately walked up to me and pushed me even harder, almost making me fall down. So much anger was going through me that I ran up to him and punched him straight smack in the face. Zane collapsed on the floor, everyone gasping at what I did.

Zane turned around, wiping off the small amount of blood that was on his face. He quickly got up, not letting this bother him. He took a few steps forward, not doing anything but standing there. I also stood there, not knowing what to expect. What seemed like hours, Zane took a step forward and wacked me right in the nose.

Pain went thrugh my face as I fell down to the floor. Everyone stood back from the situation, scared at what was happening.

"You son of a bitch!" I quickly got up, running back to him and tackling him onto the ground. We started punching and kicking each other, everyone screaming for us to stop.

"No! Stop! Guys! Don't!" Cleo yelled, trying to break up the fight but Lewis grabbed her so she couldn't get near us.

"I hope you die in hell!" I yelled at Zane, punching him multiple times in the stomach and yanking him by the hair. We rolled on and off each other, both trying to pin each other down.

Zane dug his nails into my face, trying to knee me into the stomach. I grabbed his arm, and whacked him hard on the lower chin. He fell to the floor, trying to get up but I got onto of him, punching him one after another. He tryed blocking his face but it wasn't doing him any good. With that he kicked me in the groan, the pain unbearable. I rolled off him, trying to get up and attack him.

Cleo and Bella grabbed me and Lewis tryed to pull back Zane. Rikki stood off to the side, shocked by what was happening.

"What the hell is your problem!" Zane yelled, bruises going across his entire face.

"Your the problem! We know what you did and don't try to deny it!" I yelled.

"What are you talking about?" Zane breathed heavily, pulling himself away from Lewis's grip.

"You. Raping Rikki. We know that's what you did to her." I snapped back.

The expression on Zane's and Rikki's face changed dramatically.

"What! I never raped Rikki! Why would you think that?" Zane asked, now talking in a normal voice.

"Because we saw them. We saw bruises all over her hands and face." I snapped back. "Plus she has been acting weird around you lately and she hasn't been herself. Obviously your the reason why shes been like that. You raped her." I concluded.

Rikki shook her head, realizing that this was a huge mistake.

"Why the hell did you tell them I rapped you!" Zane screamed at Rikki, confusion spreading across his face.

"I never told them you raped me! I would never make up such a lie!" Rikki screamed back.

"Then why with all the secrecy? And why did you have bruises all over you!" I asked Rikki. She didn't respond back. She just looked away in shame.

"Because it was James who tried to rape her! Not me!" Zane yelled, trying to stop the bleeding that was on his lip.

It immediately went silent, everyone looking over at Rikki.

"Is it true? Did James really try to rape you?" Bella asked quietly. Rikki took a deep breath, slowly nodding her head. Everyone stood there in shock, realizing that everything they thought about Zane was wrong.

"So you just willingly just had sex with Zane?" Emma crossed her arms.

Rikki's eyes were full of sadness, as she slowly nodded her head again. Everyone went silent, Rikki's hair swifting with the wind. "I thought you guys understood." Rikki mumbled.

I looked back at Zane, not knowing what to say. It was true. Zane's idiotness was catching on.

"Well i'm glad you all got that figured out. Im out of here." Zane aggressively walked away, my fists slight throbbing from the pain. It turned silent, all you could hear was the waves of the ocean, coming from a distances.

"What were you guys thinking! You could of killed each other!" Rikki started screaming.

"Look! Were really sorry Rikki! We were just trying to help!" Bella said in a comforting voice but she didn't respond kindly.

"Well do me a favor and don't try to help! All of you just stop trying to help me! All your doing is making things worse!" Rikki continued yelling at us.

"We were just looking out for you. We didn't know-" Cleo started out but Rikki cut her off.

"You think I would just stand here like an idiot, pretending nothing happened? If i got rapped, I would of told you guys!" She broke down screaming.

"Oh ya, like how you told us about James almost raping you!" Emma snapped back, knowing that was the last thing we should of been saying to her.

Tears were developing in Rikki's eyes, the pain shown through out her face. She turned around, trying to hide herself from everyone

"No, Rikki! We didn't mean it like that!" Cleo touched her shoulder but Rikki shoved her away.

"Don't touch me!" She pulled back, escaping from the situation, and walking away from the group.

Everyone stood there in shock, not expecting any of this. I turned away, knowing this was my fault. The shame and embarrassment built up inside me and I simply just started walking away. Everything was so confusing and nothing made sense anymore. It's like every time I tryed to help, I ended up making it worse. Rikki was growing apart from the group, she was separating herself from everyone. The problem she was in, was not going to be easy to solve. No matter how hard we tried to help...


	9. An Agreement

**Rikki's Pov**

It was windy outside, the sun slightly setting below the ocean and the beach. The sky was now turning an orange, pink color, everyone leaving the beach to go home. I was now all on my own. My loose shirt was sifting with the wind, my medium size belly, now slightly showing. The girls have already gone back to their collage, including their boyfriends. It was up to me to figure this out... to figure out what to do with my future.

A saw a bunch of teenage kids with surf boards, running up the beach, laughing. They were enjoying their last few weeks of summer before entering back into school. I looked back down at my belly, some how wishing it would go flat again. I didn't look pregnant nor skinny, i felt fat. One of the worst feeling anyone could feel about themselves.

It only felt like yesterday that we all graduated from high school. Now its all ending and everyone is going back to their busy normal lives. All except for me. Its only been two days since the girls have gone back to collage, but for me, it felt like two years. I was determined to find a job, something that would help pay everything off, but the odds of that happening seemed low.

I softly kicked the sand with my feet. I felt it go in between my toes, the ground being slightly warm. My thoughts were going off in every direction, the same way they did every time i went swimming. How much I wish I could dive into the ocean and feel the salty water go directly on my face. The feeling of pride and joy, like you owned the world. The feeling of doing whatever you want, with out anyone watching you. Only this time, i would be asking for trouble if I dove into the water, and I was already in enough trouble.

The beach was clearing up and there were very few people. Instead of the noise of laughing kids, all i could hear was the waves tumbling onto the beach. I looked up, seeing the man who was in the same position as me, sitting up on the wooden rails.

He, also staring at the beach, was in deep thoughts. He had both of his shoes in one hand, watching the sun, going slowly below the depth of the oceans. He was wearing long skinny black pants and had a grey t-shirt on. I took a deep breathe, walking towards him.

He was so concentrated at looking at the ocean, that he didn't even notice I was walking towards him. I could clearly see the bruises on his face, his fists also looking a bit swallon.

"It's nice, isn't it?" I softly asked, Zane immediately looking over at me. It didn't take long for him to stare back at the beach, his attitude telling me he was upset.

"I don't know why but the beach, just seems like the perfect place to let out all your thoughts. Well, that's once everyone's gone. Its like the sun puts you in a trance or something." I slightly teased but he didn't smile. He continued looking at the ocean.

I walked up to him, putting my hand on the wooden rail. The current of the wind blew a little harder, making my hair fly in all directions, but it settled down after a few seconds.

"You have every reason to be mad." I started off, sitting down next to Zane. It was silent for a few seconds, not knowing if he was going to respond. I opened my mouth to say something but he beat me to it before I had a chance of saying anything.

"I'm not mad. Just... confused. That's all." He responded, his face expression not changing, the same feeling of confusion going through me as well.

"I... I really thought we had a chance to start all over again. After all that's happened this summer, I thought maybe we could actually work things out but... it seems like were going through the same circles again. Same routines. Whatever I do, I just end up making it worse." He turned around to look at me. All i could look at was his swallon bruised up eye. Even though I hate to admit it, I felt some sort of pity for him.

"I'm... I'm just tired of playing these games. I just wish all of this would go back to normal." I softly mumbled to myself, the words drifting to the wind and into Zane's ears. He shock his head, the same way he does when he's frustrated.

"And what is normal for us Rikki? When... has any of this been normal? Were both trying to avoid each other from different problems that it just ends up making things worse." He spoke out, turning his head to look back at the ocean. "I miss you Rikki... And as much as it hurts, I know doing this, won't solve anything..." He continued.

He had a point. None of this was working. Now with the girls gone, it felt like all my problems were crashing on top of me, including Zane. I took a deep breathe, trying to break the awkward uncomfortable silence in between us.

"Be honest Zane... But, do you really wanna go though with this? Do you really wanna be a parent?" I asked, looking at him, waiting for an answer. He looked away for a few seconds, getting his thoughts together but quickly looked back at me with those sad eyes.

"I feel like I need to. But, i don't want to do it on my own. I wanna be here for you but every time I try, I feel like your pushing me away." He responded, the sky now turning a purplish pink color. You could see a quarter of the sun and the ocean was sparkling off of it.

"Zane, its not that I wanna push you away... it's just I feel that your here for a different reason as to why I'm here. We both want different things, and to that conclusion, its just mixing things up. Were just going to end up hurting each other in the long run." I explained, Zane looking down, breaking the eye contact with me.

"I don't want a relationship right now. I'm just not ready for one yet. Not after everything we've been through." I added, the disappointment, showing on Zane's face.

"So there's never going to be an "us" again? That's just it? All I am to you is the parent of this baby?" He asked, sadness crepping into his voice. It was silent, not knowing what to reply. Deep down inside me, I still cared for Zane. I still missed him and I didn't want this to end. I didn't want this to be over. But at the same time, I feel like ill be digging myself into a deeper hole if I did get back together with him.

"I'm not saying there's never going to be an "us" again but... i feel like we need to concentrate on other things before we concentrate on ourselves. As much as I wanna trust you again, I just cant convince myself to do so. I need time. I need space. Maybe another reason why I'm pushing you away. I'm not ready for any of this. I feel all of this is being dumped onto me." I explained, feeling the sand, in between my toes.

"And if I gave you space, would you ever let me back into your life again?" He asked, having some sort of hopeful look in his eyes. I sighed, the question he just asked, wishing would be something I knew the answer to.

"We need to take things slow. If we ever want this to ever work out, we need to first figure out what were going to do with this kid before we decide what we want for ourselves." I responded. He nodded in understanding, the sound of silence going in between us again.

"And you... Are you ready to be a mother?" He softly asked, thinking deeply about what he asked.

"I... I don't know. I barley know how to take care of myself, let alone another person. All the responsibility that comes with being a parent seems... over whelming." I honestly responded. He nodded again, knowing exactly what I meant.

"Instead of making all of this so complicated, why can't we just settle on a plan? I'll give you more space and we can both decide what we want for the baby. I can show you that you can trust me and we can go on from there." He started explaining.

"But there's so much more to it than that." I cut in.

"So why don't we just start as friends and go from there. It won't hurt trying." He suggested.

"But we've already tried so many times before that. Every time we do, it keeps crashing in on us. We need to know that this will work out." My voice raising a bit higher in frustration.

"I think we just need to communicate more. We don't even tell each other whats bothering us, which just leads us to more fights. If we want to do whats best for the baby, then that's what we need to do from now on. I don't want the baby feeling the same way I did growing up, abounded because one of my parents couldn't stand living with the other. I don't want it living with out a mother or father because I know how that feels, and it feels horrible." He added on.

"I wanna know that it'll feel loved and accepted because I never once felt like that growing up. And even if we both don't work out at the end, we know we tried and gave all our effort to work this out. I just don't want you giving up on me quite yet." He finished, giving me those sad eyes that he did so well.

And always, he had a point.

"But promise me one thing." I finally said, before we both came into an agreement.

"And whats that?" He asked with curiosity.

"To just treat me like a parent, like some other friend and to not continue trying to get us back together. Not until I think were ready." I explained, knowing exactly what I meant from that. He sighed, knowing he didn't like the idea but he knoded his head.

"Ok. Just as a friend?" He asked.

"Just as a friend." I clearly stated, the sun almost below the ocean. You could now clearly see the moon above us and darkness started taking over the sky. For now, I just hoped it worked out. That maybe there was still a chance for this to end up well. For the baby's sake. That's all the mattered anyways.

**A/N: I really hoped you guys liked that chapter! I know there are a lot of Zikki lovers reading my story so the good news is that, from now on, the story is MAINLY going to be Zikki! (Finally!) Haha, well, what do you think? Reviews? They are greatly appreciated ;)**


	10. Good and Bad News

**Bella's Pov**

"So then, the teacher was going off about all these cool rocks that they can only find in certain parts of the ocean. Did they know that the Camern rock is only found in the arctic parts of the ocean. I cant imagine anyone diving under there to get those. They would be great for my collection though." Will teased.

He was going off for the past 10 minutes about the science class all that they were doing. I couldn't help but smile at his cuteness.

He paused to look at me. His face turned to confusion when he saw me smiling.

"What?" He asked, slightly smiling back.

"Oh nothing... continue. Your just cute when your talking about all of your ocean stuff." I held his hand.

"Uh... Sorry. Is all of this getting to your head?" He squinted his face, knowing he was going a bit overboard with his conversations.

I laughed leaning up and giving him a kiss on the check. "Not at all. Its way better than talking about that English class. I swear, one more book I have to read and my backpack will explode." I laughed, making Will roll his eyes.

"Oh don't you get me started on that. I haven't even started reading "The Hambardon" book and Emma's already on chapter 8. Do you know how long that will take for me to catch up?" He raised his eyebrow.

I laughed. "Well Emma likes to go ahead and finish all of her class assignments early. I'm only on chapter two if that makes you feel any better." I reassured him.

He smiled, giving my hand a squeeze. He looked off to a certain direction as he was thinking of something. I looked at his face but he didn't notice since he was off into his own thoughts. Right when I was about to say something, he opened his mouth.

"You know what. Maybe we should just take a break from this and go off to the beach. Have a picnic, swim. Get away from here for a while. The whole campus collage thing is making me a feel a bit... trapped." He honestly told me.

"Well the nearest beach is like, 25 minutes away from here. Plus I promised Cleo I would help her with her math homework..." I explained. He slightly frowned. "But from what I heard, that sounds very... Romantic." I gave him a flirty smile.

He wrapped his arms around my skinny body as he lifted my chin to his face. With that, he leaned in to kiss me but that's when I heard my name go off.

"Bella?" I heard a familiar male voice.

I bit my lip, my face centimeters away from Will's. I turned around to see my Music teacher standing there.

"Oh Hi, Mr. Lertin. Uh, um, this is Will... My boyfriend. Will, this is Mr. Lertin, the Head Professor of the Music Program." I explained.

"Oh, so your the one who runs all the music teachings here at the collage." Will quickly responded, trying to start a conversation.

"And talking about the Music Program, Bella, may I have a word. It will only take 5 minutes. I promise" He told me. I slightly frowned, letting go of Will's hand and walking off to the side to talk to the teacher.

"I just wanted to talk about the music lesson you took the other day." He started off.

Immediately I bit my lip. Oh crap! What if he thought horribly of my singing? What if I wasn't good enough. Remembering that first time I came into his studio, i screwed things up pretty badly. I came in again to show him my talent but when I left, he had a pretty blank face expression. He didn't say anything and I just simply left.

"Well, from what I heard..." He started saying.

"Oh no. He's going to tell me something bad." I quickly thought.

"You were absolutely outstanding. Your one of the most talented singer I've heard." He explained, as I took a big deep breath of realse.

"Really... Well... I've always loved singing and being in a band..." But he cut me off.

"Thats why I'm wondering if you could come over for more private lessons. if I think your good enough, I might ask one of the best proffers of this music company to come over and listen to you. The music you write and put together is excellent." He went off about how I did.

"Professor from a music company?" I asked in shock. He took a deep breathe.

"Look. I dont just give this opportunity to anybody. You need to take this seriously and you might need to be put in more the advanced classes. We could give you a free scholar to one of the top Art Universities there is, here, in Australia. This is a lot to take in but just think about it. It would be great if you could also bring in one of your recorded albums you already have. That is also something we would take interest in." He explained.

"Ya! Well, of course." I skimmed through words, not knowing what to say.

"Ok then. I'll let you get back to whatever your doing." He turned around to see Will, standing awkwardly, waiting for me. "Take care. Looking forward to seeing you this next class." He placed a hand on my shoulder and simply walked away.

I stood there, trying to suck in all of this information. As much as I was excited, I was also... scared. Mr. Lertin was one of the most strict teacher here at this collage. Imagine people at studios. I walked towards Will, taking another deep breath.

"What was that about?" He asked, grabbing my hand.

"You will never believe it..."

**Zane's Pov**

I walked into the house, going upstairs to head to my room. I just went by Rikki's house to give her a book. It had all this information about parenting and I decided to quickly run by and give to her. I just came back from the store with a few things my dad needed but I intended to leave them at the bottom of the stairs, not directly to him.

"Zane!" I heard him yell my name from across the kitchen. Knowing from the tone of his voice, it would probably be some stupid lecture or chore he wanted to give me. I simply dropped my bags on the floor and walked into the kitchen.

"What?" I plainly asked.

"Have you filled out those papers I gave you? I need to send them through the mail." He reminded me, as he was fiddling with this pen, in between his fingers.

"What papers?" I asked in confusion.

"What _papers_? The papers to Harvard! The papers you have to fill out with all your information, classes and business taking courses that you are going to do!" He firmly placed the pen on the counter. "Do not tell me you didn't fill those out or you are going to be in a Hell of-" But I cut him out.

"I'm not going." I simply responded.

He paused, frowning in a viscous way. "What did you say?" He gave me this death glare that he did with his eyes.

"I'm... NOT... Going!" i broke the words into pieces so he could understand me clearly.

He immediately slammed the table with his hand!

"This isn't your decision weather your going to Harvard or not! We need people like you, running our business in the future! I put millions and millions of dollars into that corporation and I'm not going to let this company go down the drain because you don't feel like going!" He strictly explained.

"I can't and I won't go! This is your business! Not mine! I want nothing to do with this!" I tried to calmly explain this to him.

"Oh, so what are you going to do in the future? Run failure cafe's like you did before? You have no idea about marketing and I was an idiot to give you that business in the first place!" He mumbled to himself.

"Right now I'm not ready to go off to collage. I don't even think this whole business thing is for me!" I responded.

"And that's why you'll learn at Harvard. You don't want to end up in a minimum wage job because you didn't do yourself some good and go to collage. You just laying around, being a lazy ass wont get you anywhere in life! I expect more from you Zane, so trying to get out of this, wont be an option for you anyways!" My Dad snapped back.

"Well I can't anyways. I have other plans anyways." I told him.

"Ya! Like what...?" My dad sternly asked. I froze in place, not knowing what to say. How was I supposed to come out in the open about this? I looked away, wishing I never had to answer this. "I'm getting in-patient! Tell me right now or I might as well buy you a airplane ticket to Harvard right now!" He snapped at me.

"It's... It's Rikki." I mumbled.

"Ah... Rikki..." My dad pretended to be all nice about it. "You mean the girl you ran the cafe with, obviously failed and then broke up? What about her?" He started getting meaner, the more he talked. I took a deep breathe, knowing I was so dead after this.

"She's pregnant... and it's my kid." I looked up at him, his face expression confused.

After a few seconds of running the words through his head, his face turned red and he had the meanest face expression I've ever seen in my life. Yup, i was totally screwed.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about? You got a girl pregnant and now your going to ruin your whole life because of HER? Your staying here because this is what your going to do? Raise a baby! How fuckin stupid do you think I am? I can't believe I've set you up to be a failure! I expected more from you Zane!" He started screaming at me.

"It's not an excuse! I want to help her! Just let me see how this will work out!" I tried yelling over the top of him but he wasn't listening.

"I am done with your bull crap Zane! I really am sick of it! Ive already given you enough chances to do whatever you want but instead, you go off and screw around! If you don't get this papers filled out right now, I swear I will..." But I cut him out.

"What! So you can have that child raised the same way as me? Abandoned from his own two parents because neither of them gave a shit about them!" I yelled.

My dad froze in place, shocked from what I just yelled.

"I have given you everything you wanted and everything you need and the way you repay me is by giving me this! I want no part of this child and I want you off to collage where you should be! This company will NOT go down the drain because of you and If you have nothing better to do with your time then might as well leave my house!" His voice got higher.

"Exactly! Cause all you care about is you and your stupid company! You can't even think the tiniest bit about me or Grand kid. All you do is this! Work hours and hours non-stop and you don't even look around to see what there is. I don't want to end up like you! I already have for the past 19 years of my life and its only gotten worse!" I screamed.

"Go ahead! Go ruin your life because of some girl! But don't expect anything from me! I don't want to be part of this stupid seam!" He finally stormed off, leaving the kitchen, but i knew this wasn't the end of it.

I shook my head, trying to cool off. Fights always ended like this with my Dad. I had to think fast and give a good reason as to why I should stay. But I knew at the end, he would always win in a way. What if I was kicked out because of not going to Harvard? What then? I would be pointless and I certainly would have no way of supporting Rikki. I ran upstairs, taking in deep breathes.

I couldn't have this happen. Maybe telling him that this child was partly his too might help but, he never did care about me so why would he care about this child? There was one thing for sure. I would NEVER let this kid feel rejected from me. I wouldn't follow in the footsteps of my father. And that is something I'm sure I will never do. Even if I end up following his footsteps of running his business...

**A/N: Sorry for the long update! I was in Mexico and recently I just came to the United States so I've been hanging out with friends and family so sorry about that :( Thanks for your amazing reviews last chap! Cant wait to read more on this one :)  
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	11. The Book of Names

**A/N: Hello my beautiful people :) Ah! I know, please to scream or say mean things to me but this is the longest time i haven't updated, so uh, i hope i at least have a few readers out there cause i think everyone is gone! But because I'm so busy, i doubt ill be albe to continue but if theres still a high demand for this story, ill continue! So ya! Enjoy it! :D**

**Rikki's Pov (Yay!)**

_~1 Month Later~_

I opened the book, and scanned through all the names that were covered on each page. I had to admit, it reminded me a lot like a dictionary, with each word and description, so finding what i wanted to name my kid, would not be easy. Zane was in the kitchen, doing who knows what, as I was looking through the "J" section.

"Jackie, Jacson, Jaskson, Jacie, Jaddie..." I paused." Who in the world would name their kid Jaddie?" I mumbled to myself as I flipped the page.

Zane still looked busy, filling out some paper work. He hasn't talked at all since I came over to visit, which was not much like him at all. I ignored it, randomly opening the book to another random page, finding myself on the "M" section.

"Maccie, Mackness, Manny, MeKenna...?" I slightly smiled. "Hey Zane?" I turned my face to look at him. He was still looking down for a few seconds, until he released I was being serious.

"Hmm, what?" He asked, tapping the pencil against the side of his cheek.

"What do you think of the name MeKenna for a girl? Or is too original? I want something unique but not so unique that it would just sound weird, " I continuing flipping the pages, finding myself on the letter "P".

"Ya, Mekenna's cute..." He quickly responded, going back to filling in paper work.

Curious as to what he was doing, I left the book open, spread across the coach and started walking towards the direction of where Zane was.

"Ok Zane. What's up? You've been acting weird all morning." I put my arms on the counter of the kitchen.

"Hmm, why do you think anything would be wrong?" He rapidly tapped his pencil against the table, while showing a worried face expression.

"Oh come on! How long do you think we've known each other? I can sense somethings wrong and wait, whats that?" I asked, looking at the paperwork.

"Look Rikki, it's nothing. Just go back on the couch and continue looking for names. It was Meckenzy, right?" He questioned, acting like he cared. I sighed, knowing this was going no where.

"No, it was Mekenna but that's not the point. Why aren't you taking any of this seriously? I thought you were some what excited... well not excited... but maybe a bit happy... I don't know. It's hard to say since this will be a lot of work and it just seems like somethings wrong... Your not backing out on me are you?" I immediately asked out of the blue.

Zane dropped his pencil and looked up at me. "No! No! Of course not! I'm sorry! I should be helping you out. Its just all thats going on... or whats going to happen is stressful and my Dad is being a pain in the butt..." I stopped him.

"Wait, your Dad? Is that why your all feed up? What exactly did he say about me? Is this why your all stressed out?" I looked at him with concern. Zane sighed.

"Rikki, I don't want to add anymore stress onto your life than I already have, so talking about this, won't help out at all. Lets just forget about this and just enjoy the rest of the afternoon. We can order pizza or something. Just give us some time to ourselves." He stacked the pile of papers together. "Plus my problems, is something you probably wouldn't care about." He also mentioned.

"Zane." I grabbed his arm before he walked out of the kitchen. "Forgetting about this won't help and I can't help if you won't tell me whats wrong. I know its hard and I know the feeling but, just at least tell me a little background information about this. You told me no more secrets. Lets just keep it that way." I sternly said. He sighed knowing I was right.

"Its... its my Dad. He's mad because I decided I don't want to go to Harvard. Two weeks ago, when he went on his business trip, he said that if I didn't enter in all of the paperwork to the school, he would kick me out of the house. I just can't loose that risk and I'm fillng them out, just in case he really is being serious." He quickly explained, showing signs of hope that I wouldn't be mad.

I nodded my head in understanding. "So... when will he be back from his business trip?" I asked.

Zane hesitated to answer but knew he had to. "Tommorow." He paused, knowing it was a lot to take in, in just a few minutes.

I sighed, trying to think of some plans to do. Obviously Zane, going to Harvard, wasn't going to be much help... Unless he was trying to find some way out, which I tried hard not to believe. Not after all the work he's done, just for us to become friends again.

"Ok Zane. Lets just wait for your Dad to come back and then you can worry about this. Maybe he can give you an extra year to stay here or you could go to a collage here in Australia..." I suggested, but Zane shook his head in frustration.

"Harvard is one of the top schools in the world and my dad, and grandpa and all the other generations of family that i've had, graduated in Harvard. He wouldn't let me off the chain that easily, even if I did go to the best collage here in Australia." He explained. Once again, I tried to convince myself that this wasn't a plan for him to get out of. What if it was. Then what?

"And what if your Dad is being dead serious? Would you still go to Harvard or stay here?" I asked, hoping he wasn't going to immediately answer it with Harvard.

Zane, sighed taking some deep thoughts to think about this. "I can't go yet. Not this soon anyways. I can always move into a apartment or get a job... but then I would have no way to support you or the child." Zane sounded upset, the most that he has been in a long time.

I always remembered the days when we were young and innicient, Zane would always tell me the stories about the frustrations with his Dad. I would always tell him something that encouraged him to step up for himself and I think thats what really brought us close... but who was I kidding? That was almost three years ago. Things have changed. Things have changed a lot.

"Wow. This really is a big problem." I paused." Look, whatever happens Zane, we will always find a way to work this out. Maybe if you can't stay, then I can give the kid up for adoption." I suggested.

"NO!" Zane immediately blurted out. I paused, a bit shocked by the way he reacted. Zane took a deep breathe, releasing that he was loosing his tempear. "No! We... we can fix this. We don't have to put it up for adoption. Lets just think of a plan and I can talk my Dad out of doing this." Zane put his hand, through his hair, pacing back and fourth across the room.

I looked at him, coming to the conclusion that he really did want to stay. None of us wanted to be in this position but at the same time, giving the kid up for adoption would make it even more heartbreaking. I just wanted a day to myself, where I could hang out with the girls, do something stupid like shopping, then swim out to mako and pretend that no creppy marine biologist could be watching us. I wanted a day where I could eat whatever I want and not worry about the baby's health. I just wanted to be skinny again and not have troubles of getting out of bed every morning, because of the extra weight that layed at the front of my belly.

I walked in front of Zane, and stopped him from pacing across the floor. I grabbed his two hands and gave them a tight squeeze. "Zane... It's going to be OK. You need to relax and stop stressing your self out. Were going to work this out. I promise." I sternly said, Zane continuing to look into my eyes. He soon began to relax and he took a deep breathe. Once he looked slightly more calm, I broke eye contact with him and let go of his hands.

I turned around, trying not to make the situation awkward.

"Your right. Screw him. I'm not leaving. I can deal with this on my own. If my Dad wants to kick me out, then let him do it. Im a adult now. I can deal with this on my own." Zane said confidently.

I nodded, hoping Zane wouldn't cause even a bigger conflict, when his Dad arrives from his business trip. This was already exuasting enough and I didn't feel in the mood of choosing out names.

"Look Zane. Maybe I should go home and you can try to figure something out. I'm feeling kinda tired and I need some rest. You can keep the book and highlight any more names that you think would be good." I suggested.

"Really? Are you sure? You can rest here if you want? I mean, wouldn't it be more exhausting for you to walk home?" Zane started looking concerned. Now he was starting to act a bit more like himself.

"Uh, my house is only a 15 minute walk from your house. I think it'll be fine." I reassured him.

"Ya, but your pregnant." He reminded me.

"I may be pregnant but that doesn't mean my legs don't work. I can take care of myself." I slightly smiled.

He gave me a weird face.

"Why are you smiling?" He slightly smiled back.

I rolled my eyes. "Your cute. I'm leaving now. Bye!" I turned around with my bag but he caught me right in time before I left out the front door.

"Rikki, wait!" He gently grabbed my arm. Why wasn't I expecting this?

"What about the doctors appointment. I mean, your five months pregnant. We can go into the doctor and they can show us photos of our kid, we can find out the gender, actually look for clothes and cribs that can match the baby." Zane started rambling, not releasing that he sounded a bit excited.

I looked down at the ground, feeling a bit upset about this. "I... I can't." I looked into his eyes. Zane frowned.

"What do you mean you can't? If this is about how much it'll coast, don't worry, I can borrow my Dad's visa card and I can pay for the appointment." Zane explained.

"No. It's not that!" I snapped at him.

"I mean, unless you want the gender of the baby to be a surprise, than thats totally okay. I can ask them not to tell us what gender it is and we can just look at the photos." He rushed in explaining, knowing I was on the urge of leaving.

"No Zane! If I go, I'll... I'lll get wet!" I finally said.

He frowned, not exactly knowing what I meant by that. "Rikki, ill be in the appointment with you. I'll make sure nothing goes wrong." He reassured me.

I shock my head, knowing he wasn't getting the point of what I was trying to say.

"The gel they use to put on your belly is made out of a watery liquid. The second they lay that on my skin, ill grow a tail. It's way too risky and I don't want to go through all the trouble to do this." I explained to him.

"And what if you don't react to the jelly. Then can we take you in?" Zane asked.

"Oh, and what if the baby is growing inside of me with a tail. How are we supposed to explain that to the doctors?" I responded. Zane just stood there, not knowing what else to say.

"Look Zane, I know you want to look at the baby just as much as I do, but if anything goes wrong, we can become in huge trouble. I'm sorry but that's what has't to happen." I mentioned.

A look of upsetness smeared across Zane's face, knowing I was right.

"And what happens when your in labor? Will you end up not going to the hospital as well." He asked, starting to act a bit mad.

I paused, not having that exact answer to his question.

I sighed. "We can figure this out later when we don't have to worry about your Dad. Ok? Thinking about this, is not making my situation any better so please, lets not try to rush it. We have another 4 months before any of this happens. Alright?" I gave him a reassuring smile but he didn't smile back.

I turned around, trying not to emotionally break down into pieces. All of this was so frustrating and I would do anything to run down to the beach, and dive into that salt blue ocean. I looked back at Zane one last time, before grabbing the handle and closing the front door shut.

**A/N: Yay! Finished my update! :D :D :D :D Hope you liked it or, idk. I know it was a stressing zikki scene but it will become better! Everyone have a Merry Halloween! ;D**


	12. The Deal

**Bella's Pov**

The sun was barley touching the wrinkly waters of the ocean, the sunset resulting as a mix of a yellow oragne color. It almost looked like 2 suns, the second one reflecting off the water. It felt good to be back on the Gold Coast. It was a three day weekend and it would be best to spend it here then in a small room, back at the collage.

I felt the small grains of sand in my toes, sitting down to get a better feeling of the beach. Everyone was leaving, and there was no one in sight that was still in water, maybe a few of them building sandcastles along the beach.

My heart told me to go running towards the ocean and to swim right towards Mako but there were too many thoughts in my head telling me not to go. It was unfair, that was one thing for sure. Not to be able to do the things you loved. Damn, even Will could go swimming right now and he wouldn't have anyone warning him about the "dangers" that could happen if he went out there this very moment.

"Dr. Denman. Give me a break." I thought to myself, rolling my eyes. It had to be some sort of joke or the girls imagination.

I lifted myself off the ground, ready to swim but immediately sat back down, knowing that I would be betraying them in some way.

Its been already a month and the nearest I've gone to swimming is laying down in the small uncomfortable bathtub that the dorm had to offer us back at the collage. I wouldn't be surprised if Rikki has already gone off swimming, even just once. What else is she supposed to do? Just sit around and do nothing all day? Well, that was usually what she did, but after a month, I could imagine it would get pretty boring. Though I wouldn't complain, not with the amount of homework that the teacher gives me everyday.

There were only 3 people left in sight and if I had the chance, id just go into the water right now. It's not like Denman would be awake this very minute with her crew. Plus what could swimming for a few hours do anyways?

Looking around me, making sure no one was watching, as I was just about to stand up, when I heard a voice come from right behind me.

"Bella." He yelled with a cheerful smile, sitting down right besides me.

"Will." I looked at him, trying not to show the annoyance on my face. I bit my lip as the last 3 people were leaving the beach. Don't get me wrong, Will was a great boyfriend but this whole "no swimming" thing was getting to my head. If I told Will about it, the girls would eventually find out too.

"Hey there!" He kissed the side of my head, rubbing my back for a few seconds. He let go so that he could keep in balance while he got in a comfortable position to sit down.

"Its beautiful, isn't it? Great to be back here again. I love the beach and all the excitement that there is to do here. Wish they would be move the collage right here." He teased, pulling back my blonde hair behind my ear.

I gave a small smile but it quickly disappeared with the sight of the ocean. He knew instantly what I wanted as he scooted closer to me.

"Don't worry Bell, I'm sure Dr. what's her face will be gone in no time. Then we can go swimming again, have picnics out on mako, ride with dolphies. What do you say?" He smiled.

His smile gave a me a warm feeling inside me and I knew he was right.

"Hopfully she will. I don't know how much longer I can last like this." I looked into his blue eyes, reaching out for his hand. And then he whispered in my ear:  
>"Unless you want to go right now?" My mouth dropped open as I slapped him on the shoulder.<p>

"You really want me to get in trouble? I'm not that gulible." I snapped back with a playful reaction.

"I was just kidding! I'll just go with out you!" He put his hands up in the air like he was surrendering. I rolled my eyes and dug my face into my arms.

"Uh! This sucks!" I screamed but it was muffled by the blockage of my arm.

"Ah. Its okay Bella. I'll say hi to the dolphins for you." I immediately lifted my head and stood up. Confused, Will stood up too.

"What? I'm sure the dolphins miss you a little bit. I sure would if I wouldn't be able to see you for a month." He followed me.

I smiled, flattered by the ridiculous comments Will was making.

"You really have a hard time on making a girl feel better, don't you?" I smiled.

"Hey, i've been practicing these lines for years." He responded back.

"With who? Your sister?" I giggled, making him blush a little bit.

"Nope. Because I was waiting to use them on you." He stopped me in my path to hold my hand. Before I could say anything else, he pressed his lips on my mine and pulled me close to his body. His hand went through my hair and I could feel my two arms wrap around his neck. After what seemed like a minute, his lips unlocked with mine and he kept his face, inches away from mine. His eyes glimered with the sun and it made me feel all warm inside.

"You know, you could of just done that instead of making all those comments back there." I mentioned. This time, Will was the one to roll his eyes instead of me.

"Come on. Lets go back to the boatshed. I have snacks there and we can watch a movie or something." He suggested as we both started walking off the beach.

"And are you sure your sister would fine with that?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Ya, of course. She's probably in the library doing homework with Emma. Well, thats what she told the last time I saw her." He looked at me.

"And when was that?" I dropped my sandals on the sidewalk so that I could slip them onto my feet.

"Uh... around 1 in the afternoon." Will finally admitted. Again I slapped his arm.

"Ow! Stop doing that!" He rubbed his sore arm, trying to act all innocent.

"1 in the afternoon! That was 6 hours ago. Unless they're both planning on finishing the whole novel for english class, I doubt they would still be there." I slightly laughed. Will smiled.

"Okay then, thats obviously not likely to happen." He grabbed my hand again as we headed towards his boat shed.

"Do you think maybe we could go to a different beach and go swimming there?" I asked out the blue, relizing it sounded kind of stupid.

"Wow, this whole swimming thing is getting to you. Are you really that desperate?" He gave me a serious look.

"I know this is sounding repetitive and annoying but I don't think the girls are giving me a fair chance. I mean, all of this happened 3 years ago and we have to avoid everything because of that? I wasn't even involved. I'm just getting a little inpatient. Thats all." I sighed, knowing I wasn't the kind of person to complain that often. Even swimming in a pool sounded great at this point.

"We just want you to be safe. I don't know what I would do if something bad happened you." He gave my hand a squeeze and a warm smile.

I laid my head on his shoulder, the cool breeze coming into the night. I could finally see the slight bit of the moon and the tiny stars in the sky. Will did want to keep me safe and so did the girls. I needed to take this a little more seriously and not do things for my own selfish reasons. Me and girls were in this together and I promised them not to go swimming until Denman was gone. Maybe I could wait. Its not like I would die from not swimming. Its just how much longer could I keep that promise before I went behind their backs...

**Zane's Pov**

I stood there in the kitchen with my arms crossed, my dad reviewing my collage applications. He sometimes nodded his head and had weird face expressions but he never said anything. After what seemed like hours, he put the pile of papers on the counter and he removed his glasses onto the top of his head.

"They're fine." He instantly said. "But I except better." He continued.

"Whats the point of doing the applications anyways? Your paying for me to go to the school weather they accept me or not." I rolled my eyes.

"You better have a better attitude during the interview when we go Harvard. Im not flying half around the world to see you fail this." He snapped back. I shook my head, the tone of my dads voice annoying the hell out of me.

"And do you know what's funny? I never even agreed to do this in the first place. I only filled these paper out because I was afraid to get kicked out of the house. I was afraid that i wouldn't be able to help Rikki with this but do you know what, its over. I wasn't even going to go in the first place so why shold I start now." I stacked the piles of paper and neatly stuck them into a folder.

"And again with this idiotic conversation. I don't have time for this. I am putting all my money and effort into this and the least I am asking you to do is go to school. Maybe after you graduate you could start with a family but nows not the time." He truthfully told me, not using his normal strict tone he usually uses with me.

"I'm asking for a year! At least 6 months for me to organize my life." I begged, standing behind the counter of the kitchen.

"It would be too late by then. You would have to wait til fall to sign up again. Nows the best oppurtinuty to go and I don't want to see you fail in life because of what-" But I stopped him.

"So now I'm a automatic failure for not going to Harvard? Is that really all you think Im capable of? Going to a rich school and getting a degree there so I can work at your stupid buiness. Might as well hire me now since you pretty much manage it." I said matter-of-factly.

"See, it's an attitude like yours that i don't want in my company." He pointed his finger at me.

"I'm only 19! I've barley gotten out of high school and I'm ready to take a break with things before I move on. I'm not ready for this! No 19 year old would be, even if they were brightest student in the whole entire Gold Coast." I mentioned.

"But you'll be ready in 6 years when you come out of Harvard with a PHD degree in sales managing and business marketing. You'll be 25 and ready to take over. If you take a care of a baby the next few years, you'll get side tracked and end up not succeeding. Let alone if you wait another 18 years. Life goes fast Zane, so do the things you want to do first and then once your done, you can settle down and raise a family." He explained to me.

"Oh like you ever took the time to settle down and raise a family. Your almost 50 and you haven't even done anything but concentrate on this. I just don't want to be like you!" The argument got a bit louder.

My dad just gave me that evil glance and took a deep breathe. He put his glasses on the counter and spoke up.

"Ok Zane. I'll give you a deal. You can stay here this year and wait to go to Harvard next fall." My dad sternly said. Immeidatly my heart started racing and everything filled in with excitement. Was he really letting me off the hook this easily? Did that mean I wouldn't have to be kicked out of the house?

"Under one condition." He immediately said after words. My heart sank when I heard those 3 words, and I knew whatever the condition was, it would be something close to impossible.

"And whats that?" I asked a bit in patiently. He walked across the kitchen closer to where I was standing so he would be face to face with me.

"It coasts over 75,000 dollars to send you to Harvard for one year... but with the certain classes you'll be taking at your school, you would be making over 300,000 dollars from the support of your school and the side jobs you would be taking there at the university. You would help our business grow a lot by going to Harvard." My Dad explained. I frowned, not knowing exactly where he was going with this.

"Sooo... I would end up doing this next year then?" I asked with a insecure tone of voice. He shook his head and put his hands behind his back.

"No. Im saying that if you don't go to Harvard this year, we would be loosing 200,000 dollars worth of business plans and deals... all because you wanted to stay here and play house with your ex-girlfriend." He mentioned, intertwining his fingers together and placing both of his hands on the counter.

"I'm saying that If you want to stay here next year, your going to have to give me 200,000 dollars by the end of this week." He gave a small serious smile. My mouth slightly dropped by the unfair request he wanted me to do.

"200,000 dollars? Where the hell Im I supposed to get that type of money?" I immediately broke out yelling after the uncomfortable silence.

"I'm giving you your two options, hand me the 200,000 dollars right now or go to Harvard. If you don't do ether, then obviously you have some bigger plan in life and babysitting must be more important. Its unfair but thats all I can tell you. I can't waste my money and time. Especially if its coming from you." And with that, my dad started to leave.

Right then he paused, and turned around to look at me. "Oh by the way, if your planning on staying here, i'd recommend you trying to find a job by the elementary school. I heard they need a new janitor." He gave a small smile and with that, he was gone.

Immediately i curled up my fists and my face turned red with anger. He was taking this as a complete joke. 200,000 dollars? It was selfish enough considering how much money he already had. What would a stupid 200,000 dollars do for him anyways?

I ran upstair and into my bedroom, slamming the door with a loud noise. I felt like kicking and punching the wall but the least thing I needed was another reason for my dad to be mad at me. I face planted onto my bed, trying to cool off. There was no way I could break the news to Rikki like this. After all she's been through, I couldn't just leave. I'm the only reason why she's still pregnant. If I left her all of sudden, who knew what she would do. She could just end up going back to the abortion clinic and end it right there.

I really didn't understand why I wanted to keep the baby but, thats what felt most right. The least thing I wanted was to was mess up being a father, by aborting my first child.

I stood up from off my bed and headed towards my computer. I opened up the screen to relive many opened tabs, some containing work issues, other containing sites like Facebook. I opened up my e-mail, seeing many messages from certain people, most of it being spam.

At this point, none of it seemed important and staying here, was not even an option anymore. Its not like i could go up to a bank and ask them to borrow 200,000 dollars. I would have to find a job that pays me 10,000 dollars an hour for me to earn that amount of money in less than week.

I started replying to people's e-mails, time going by very slowly. The anger was still slowly building up inside of me as I kept thinking about my Dad. If I did go through with this, would i end up being exactly like him?

Just as I was about to hit the send button on my message, I heard my iPhone ring. Not even bothering to check the ID caller, I answered the phone.

"Hello? What do you want?" I snapped back. Who ever it was, I didn't feel like talking to them and I just wanted to wake up from this terrible nightmare.

"Uh, Hello? Is this Zane Bennett?" A unfamiliar male voice came through the phone." Confused, I looked at the number but it wasn't in my contacts.

"Uh, yes. Who is this?" I asked dully, typing in a few more words to my e-mail.

"Thats great. Im so glad I get to speak with you Mr. Bennett. I've been trying to contact you for ages but its been taking a while since no one I knew had your number or e-mail. I'm here to discuss some business options with you, Zane Bennett." The man continued.

"Again, who is this?" I put my hand through my hair, trying to concentrate on the conversation.

"Oh yes. This is the Facility Business Industry. Ever since your cafe has closed down, we have been very interested in buying it. We know a way how to make your cafe more popular and it would be easier for us to purchase it, then you trying to bring it back up to date." With that, I jumped out of my chair and closed my laptop shut.

"Purchase it?" I instantly asked, those two words running through my head.

"Yes. Our corporation is willing to buy it as soon as possible so we can start making changes to it now. Were willing to buy the whole cafe from you or... we can give you 10% of the money we make from the drinks and you can still partly own the cafe." He offered.

I shook my head, knowing I should just sell the whole thing on one price. "No. I don't want 10% of the money. I'll sell it to you right now if its possible." I stood up from my chair.

"Wow. You negotiate fast. I thought this would take weeks but if you want to settle on a price now, that would be great too. What price range were you thinking?" he asked.

My head was flooding with too many thoughts that I didn't know what to say. "I was thinking around 200,000-300,000 dollars for the whole cafe itself, not including any of the drinks or supplies that come with it." I responded back.

I heard some writing in the background but the man came back onto the phone and mumbled something before replying to my price range.

"Well, thats sure lower than what we expected you to offer but what if we settled on 250,000 dollars on the Rikki's cafe?" He finally responded.

With that, I jumped up with joy and a huge smile appeared on my face. "Yes! Of course! That would be great. 250,000 dollars it is." I concluded, not believing the amount of luck I was having today.

"Great." The man said. "You can come by our office tomorrow morning to fill out some paper work and we can take the cafe off of your hands. We will send you a check with all the legal papers attached so the bank will know that the check is really worth that much money. It was good making buiness with you Mr. Bennett. Hope to see you by the office tomorrow morning." He finally said before he hanged up and ended the deal with me.

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><p><strong>AN: Yay! So reviews please! I know this wasn't my best chapter but I just needed to solve some issues first before I go into the real story. I promise guys, it will be 10 times better once I get to the good stuff! All the people who comment on my story inspire me. Love you guys and happy holidays :)**


	13. The Shopping Department

**Yay! Winter Break so now I have some time to update my story. And I can't enforce this enough but the story WILL get better! Hopefully... well, here ya go with the next chapter. Hope you like it and please review! ;)**

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><p><strong>Rikki's Pov<strong>

I was walking down the hallway of the store with my over sized shopping cart, trying to find anything for the baby. Yes, I did feel a little ridiculous with my tight shirt and median sized belly but that was one of the main reasons why I had the shopping cart with me. To top it off, I was a 19 year old teenager in the baby department while there were 30 year old moms, rooming around in this section. As much as I wanted to hide my stomach behind the cart, it didn't work.

People kept giving me that pity look that annoyed the living crap out of me. It especially annoyed me when 60 year old woman would give me a snotty look and then roll their eyes at me as I walked by. Even some 7 year old girl gave me the eye of the devil, like she was warned about people like me. She kept staring like she's never seen a pregnant woman before and didn't stop.

"Hey kid, knock it off and get back to your own buiness." Zane snapped at the little girl. As much as the girl was irritated by Zane's comment, she still turned around and walked away from the both of us. I immediately slapped Zane in the stomach.

"Owe. What was that for?" He quietly yelped.

"Be nice! She's just a little girl." I scolded him.

"Little girl? It looked like she was possed by a demon the way she was looking at you." Zane looked annoyed. I didn't blame him. We hated how much crap we were getting from people about this. Aren't pregnant woman supposed to be treated extra nicely in this part of the stage?

"Still, I don't want to end up getting kicked out of the store because of your remarks." I continued.

Zane ignored my comment, knowing getting into a argument wouldn't be very useful. Him and his Dad have been have been going through some tough times so, not all of the stress was placed on me. I wasn't even sure if he was staying here or going to collage in Harvard. He hasn't brought it up since the last time I was at his house.

"Oeww. What about this?" Zane immediately broke the awkward silence between us to pick up a pack of diapers. "Very absorbent and very comfterbol with a 15% off discount." Zane mentioned in a sort of professional tone.

I gave a small smile and rolled my eyes. "We don't need diapers..."

"Yet." He cut me off.

"Well Zane Bennett, will you be the first to remind me to change out the baby's diaper since you seem so excited about it." I sarcastically mentioned.

He put the diapers back onto the rack. "You know, 3 months will come closer than you think it will. By then, everything will have to be ready." He mentioned.

Thinking about 'it' gave me chills down my back. Having to give birth... didn't seem like an idle thing to do, considering I probably would't be able to go to a hospital for it.

"Dont remind me. I'd like to live these 3 months in peace while I have it, because for the next 18 years, your going to have to pay child support." I grinned. "And Im sure your soooo looking forward to that." I teased.

"Ha-Ha!" He faked laughed, pushing the cart so that we could continue walking down the ale. He paused, looking at the 1 month year old clothes that they had for babies.

"I just don't get why were here right now. How are we supposed to buy anything if we don't even know the gender of the baby." Zane asked.

"Like everyone else did a hundred years ago when they didn't have doctors or x-ray machines." I explained to him. Obviously thats not what he meant.

"Come on Rikki. Why can't we go to a doctor and find out what the baby is? Atleast to see a picture of it?" He slightly begged.

"What? To see if the baby is a girl or a boy, or a human or a fish?" I gave him a stern look. He rolled his eyes, releasing the pressure off the cart.

"Ether way, im sure it will be one cute sexy baby." He whispered in my ear.

I tried not to smile but I couldn't resist. Netheir could he but I shook it off.

"Well then, why don't you do me a favor and go find some clothing that might match that baby that you have in mind." I continued pushing the cart.

"Oh, but that's not even half of it. We need to think of some names... hmm, why don't we name the baby after someone on the transformers, like megatrone! Or we could give the baby a name by someone famous like Micheal Jackson or Britney Spears . I think ether of them would work." Zane teased. I rolled my eyes at his non sense.

"Poor baby. Obviously the kid will grow up having a bad child hood." I said in a serious voice.

"Nah! I was just kidding. Those names are pretty stupid. Obviously the kid will be named after me. Hopfully its a boy and then I can teach him all the things that I've ever done in my life." He acted proud.

"Oh great. Just what we need. Another Zane Bennett! And I thought one was bad enough." I put a small blue outfit into the shopping cart. Zane took that more as an insult than a joke but he just rolled that one off his back.

"Sooo, once the little squirt gets here, exactly what are we going to do with it?" Zane asked.

"Its a baby Zane, not a toy." I snapped back at him.

"Ya, I know but where are we going to keep it? At my house, your house, or maybe Cleo's house...?" He started off.

"Ill just keep him in my room. Atleast it would grow up to act a little more proper than you would." I said, pausing to look at some baby toys but continuing to walk forward when it didn't look interesting.

"Him?" Zane immediately caught on after what I just said.

"Or her..." I corrected myself.

"But you said him. Do you secretly know the gender of the baby with out informing me?" Zane sarcastically acted surprised.

"Like I said before, I'm not going to the doctor and obviously haven't gone if thats what your asking." I rolled my eyes.

"Then why did you say him?" He asked again.

I sighed, putting my hand on my hip. "It was just a guess. I don't know why but... I have a feeling it might be a boy. Though I could be completely wrong..." I grabbed a set of 6 bibs and placed them in the cart.

"Who knows. We have a 50 percent chance of getting it right." Zane slightly smiled, a little happy that it could possibly be a boy.

"Yes, and we also have a 50 percent chance of it being a girl so don't get all worked up about the gender of the baby." I walked into the bedding department for babies.

"Ya, but aren't mothers supposed to know the gender of the baby before its born or something." He asked. I laughed slightly at his idiotness.

"I said I don't know. It was 'just' a guess. Okay?" I cleared this up, as he nodded his head slowly.

Before Zane could say anything else, I spoke up before him. "Plus why are you even here? I thought you were doomed to go to Harvard or something. Why would you even care about the baby, let alone the gender of it." I said matter-of-factly. Zane didn't answer, just slightly smiled like he was hiding something.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" I said in a serious tone.

"Oh nothing." Zane went all serious again and started walking in front of me.

There were a bunch of magazines on a small rack especially made for parents and kids but there was one magazine that looked interesting. It said "Baby Styles" on the top of the magazine which apparently contained pictures of nursery rooms. I opened the front page to find pink rooms, filled with flowers and small bunnies, red rooms filled with race cars and alphabets and so on, and so forth. There were many different designs for each room but there was one that specifically caught my attention.

There was a blue nursery room with bits of purple and yellow on the walls that made the room feel all warm and welcoming. It was decorated with a cute fancy crib, toys neatly stacked onto a self and a little night stand that contained some teddy bears on top of it. It was perfect for ether a boy or a girl and it was so neatly organized. It even had a light brown rocking chair next to it.

I was staring at what seemed like the perfect room for a solid 30 seconds when Zane slightly coughed. I immediately looked up and was about to put the magazine down when Zane looked above my shoulder to see what it was.

"Wow. Very elegant and cute..." He started out but I cut him off.

"Yes, and at least 5,000 dollars worth of work. Not something I can afford, also considering the fact that my room is too small." I sighed, a bit disappointed.

"Sooo, your seriously considering having the baby sleep in your room?" Zane asked a bit shocked.

"Yes, is that really a problem?" I snapped back, a bit insulted by the way he asked that.

"No, but the size of your room... Where exactly are you going to sleep?" Zane asked, changing his tone to a more concerned one.

"I don't know but i'll figure something out. If my bed and the babies crib doesn't fit in my room, then I'll sleep on the floor or something." I put the magazine back on the rack where the rest of them were.

"No Rikki. You don't have to do that. You can just stay in one of the guest rooms in my house." Zane offered but I honestly didn't feel like going to his place to raise a baby, considering the relationship that I had with him and his dad.

"Zane, I'm fine. You don't have to pretend to care." I quietly mumbled, putting one last thing into the cart.

"Wait what?" He grabbed my arm so that I would face him.

He looked into my eyes for a response but nothing came out of my mouth. "Nevermind." I looked away but he still kept his grib.

"Rikki, I care. Why in the world would you think i wouldn't?" Zane asked but it didn't take long for me to respond.

"Okay! I get it Zane! You have a lot more going on in your life than I do in mine! I know your going to Haravard. I wouldn't blame you if you did, considering the crap that I'm stuck with right now." I immediately blurted out.

Zane shock his head with a bit of shock.

"What are you talking about Rikki? I've never have considered going to Harvard, not even when my Dad brought it up." He explained to me.

"Come on Zane. You don't have to be extra nice to me. I know why your here at the store with me right now. If your really leaving to Harvard, why don't you just say it to me instead of telling me at the last minute." I yanked my arm out of his hand and looked towards the ground.

"Rikki. That is not true. If I really didn't care then I would of never talked to you after you got pregnant, let alone go to the abortion clinic to convince you to keep the baby." Zane snapped back.

"Fine, then just tell me that you aren't going to leave." I crossed my arms, trying to control the feelings that were flowing inside of me.

Zane sighed and then put his hand on my face where his fingers went through my blonde curly hair. He paused for a minute, looking into my blue eyes as he spoke ever so clearly.

"I'm not going to leave." He finally whispered. "There's nothing my dad can say or do that would make me wanna go there." He finished.

I was a bit releved by what he just said but something about this didn't convince me that he was fully telling the truth.

"Your just going to have to trust me on this one." He added on. There was hope in his eyes that I would accept his speech but I slowly nodded my head.

"Fine. So then whats your big plan if your dad is threatening to kick you out of the house?" I asked in my normal voice tone.

Zane smiled as he started to push the shopping cart towards the cashier. "Like I said, your going to have to see." He explained. Unfortunately for me, surprises was the least thing I wanted to have in my life so hopefully whatever Zane had planned, it would be something useful.

With that he did one last thing. He grabbed the magainze that I was just looking at and put it into the cart.

"What's that for?" I asked a bit suspiciously.

"Oh nothing." Zane repeated again for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Come on Zane. Its not going to happen." I mentioned to him but he shook his head.

"The magazine will just give me some ideas for what I could buy if the baby is a girl or a boy." He reassured me.

"Thats all?" I asked once again.

"Thats all..."

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><p><strong>AN: Wow, obviously this chapter sucked. Hopefully the next one will be better since Rikki is going over to Cleo's house to 'discuss' some stuff. Ill try to update again before winter break ends, or whatever season your in right now. lol, okay then, happy christmas and merry holidays! :)**


	14. Just One Simple Kick

**Hey people! Yes, i decided to update my story one last time before winter break ends since I'm probably going to have no time writing stories once school starts again. Happy reading :)**

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><p><strong>Cleo's Pov<strong>

I was in the living room, eating a bowl a cereal as I was only one in the whole entire house. My dad still had to work on saturday mornings, eliminating him from the list of people living in this house. My sister Kim, and my step mom Sam, were out shopping for who knows what. Sam insisted that I went shopping with the both of them but I had to put down that offer, considering that I had plans this morning. Plus I highly doubt Kim would want me to come with them.

I took another bite out of the bowl of cereal as I instantly heard the door bell ring. It didn't take me long to get up from the coach and run over to the door. I knew exactly who it was and I didn't want to spare a single second, wasting my time in this house alone.

I opened the door, revealing a tall, handsome young man with short blonde hair, a light blue t-shirt while wearing a pair of baggy shorts. I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a good solid 30 seconds kiss. He didn't hesitate to kiss me back but it did come to the point where we needed to breathe again. My lips separated from his and we both smiled.

"Morning sunshine." I giggled as Lewis picked me and brought me inside the house.

"Hey! Let me down!" I slapped Lewis on the shoulder as he started spinning me around in circles.

"Whatever you say." He put a devious grin on his face as he placed me on the sofa.

Immediately he climbed right onto of me and started tickling me.

"Stop it!" I yelled playful as he finally planted one long romantic kiss on me. We both smiled as arms were wrapped tightly around each other. He slowly relaxed right on top of me as I heard one loud cough from a familiar voice.

"Hey guys! Maybe you should of closed the front door before making out on the living room couch." Bella yelled, entering into my house like it was her own place.

I blushed a little, not expecting Bella for another ten minutes but I got up and slightly pushed Lewis off of me. He too was a little blushed from the incident.

"Sure, you can come right in Bella." I sarcastically mentioned, bringing both of my feet onto the couch.

"Thanks." She replied quickly, placing her bag next to a chair, right across from where we were sitting. She took a piece of gum from a small tiny pack of Juicy Sweet and plopped it right into her mouth. She gestured the small pack towards us but me and Lewis just shook our heads no.

"Okay then. So whats our plans for this morning." Bella asked, the silence annoying her a little bit.

"Well, we have to wait for Emma, Will and Rikki before..." But Bella interrupted Lewis.

"Ya, about that... Will isn't going to make it this morning." Bella immediately replied. "His sister is forcing to spend the morning with him so I won't be able to talk to him til this afternoon." She finished up.

"Okay then, just Emma and Rikki then." Lewis gave a weird, small, insecure look before looking back at me.

"Ya, were going to have to discuss about... you know what." I implied, Bella looking at me strangely.

"Uh, is that some code for the full moon or something. I thought you said your parents weren't here." Bella whispered but I smiled at the way she reacted.

"No... well ya, I guess, but we haven't had a problem with the full moon in a while. Of course, we'll have to keep caution of it but thats not out main concern." I explained, not really getting to the main point.

"I'm heeeerrrrreee!" Emma bursted into the house like she was in a theater opera house. She walked into the living room and left her purse on the floor, immediately crossing her legs as she sat on the coach.

"Sorry it took so long. My parents wanted a morning breakfast together so I just decided to take the car instead of walking." Emma explained, looking more happier than usual. "Oh by the way, your front door is open." Emma added.

"Bella!" I yelled out but Bella gave me a small shrug.

"Hey! Your the one who left the front door open so i assumed you wanted to keep it like that." Bella admitted.

"Sooo, where's Rikki. Isn't that why were here?" Emma asked, looking down at her pink and white nails.

"I don't know if you forgot but she's pregnant." I talked to Emma like she was a 3 year old but she rolled her eyes at me.

"Well no duh but she could at least take a car or something." She respond in annoyence.

"Not everyone has their own car Emma!" I replied, a bit ticked off about how my dad hasn't also gotten me a car yet.

"Sucks for you." Lewis gave a small cocky grin as I lightly punched him on the shoulder.

"Hey! The only reason why i have a car is because I have my own job..." He started off.

"And because your parents gave you the money." I added, Lewis not knowing what to say from that. He just remained silent after that point.

"Okay guys. This is not what I came here for. Were here for Rikki and we need to decide what to do with the baby if it turns out to be a demon or something." Lewis implied.

"What? Are you crazy? Why would you ever think that?" My mouth opened in shock.

Lewis shook his head. "Three words. Rikki and Zane." He mentioned, as Bella and Emma nodded their heads in agreement.

I rolled my eyes at the three of them and gave them a corny smile. "You know what! I think we should give her a baby shower!" I smiled, thinking it might actually be a good idea.

"A baby shower?" Emma sounded like she wanted to gag. "This isn't something to go celebrate about. This could be a serious problem." Emma added, me being bit confused at what she meant.

"Ya Cleo, we don't know what this baby is capable of and if its a human or a fish." Lewis mentioned.

"Or a demon." Emma whispered.

"Really guys. Even if its a fish, I'm pretty sure it'll be just like us." I gave a small shrug.

"Oh really. We don't know its powers, its abilities, if it is dangerous in the moon, if it will trigger the tenticle, if mako affects it, if it will permentaily be a fish..." Lewis went down the list but i stopped him.

"Okay, okay. I get what you mean but Zane is part of this too and the baby could end up being perfectly normal." I added.

"Normal? I bet you anything the baby will need consoling by the time it hits age 4." Emma snickered.

"She means normal like human, no fins, always has legs kinda normal." Lewis described.

"Since when has any of this been normal?" Emma put her elbow on the chair so she could rest her head on her hand.

"Well all of us is still alive so thats good enough for me." Bella mentioned as we heard a sound come from the front door.

"Hey guys." I saw Rikki come in with a small bag along the side of her body. Her stomach seemed to grow in size since the last time I saw her but the baggy shirt made the baby bump look smaller.

"Oh here! Let me help you with that!" I jumped off the coach as I grabbed Rikki's bag and put it in the hall way.

"Oh by the way, you should probably close the front door. We don't want people thinking this is a party" Rikki pointed behind herself as I sighed in annoyance.

"Can't anyone one close the door now a days?" I asked in frustration, shutting the front door with a slam.

Rikki sat down next to Bella, placing her hand on her stomach.

"Wow. Aren't you exhausted walking all the way from your house. I could of asked my mom to drive us here." Bella offered.

"I'm fine. Really." Rikki reassured, putting a small smile on her face.

"You seem cheerful miss chadwick." What's up?" I asked, clearing the hair out of my face.

"oh Nothing much. I just haven't seen you guys in a while. Its just boring when your sitting at home doing nothing for a few weeks." Rikki admitted.

"Well you do realize that this conversation isn't going to be all fun and games, right?" Emma gave her a stern look.

"Yes, i've been doing some research about this." Lewis said, pulling out some paper work from his bag.

"Wait what? Research on what?" Rikki asked, confused on what we meant.

"On Mako, on mermaids... the whole baby situation." Lewis hesitated to say.

Immediately a uncomfortable look overwhelmed Rikki at the thought of that. She crossed her arms, her cheerful look, not looking so cheerful any more.

"From my previous experiments on you guys, the baby gel the doctors put on you when doing an ultra sound, will turn you into mermaids. Obviously we wouldn't be able to find out the gender of the baby until it's born so, i guess thats that." Lewis explained all of us having disappointed looks on our faces, including me.

"Well this blows." Emma immediately blurted out, sitting up properly.

"And about the whole... birth thing..." Rikki started out awkwardly. "I'll still be able to go to a hospital for that... right?" She asked, as Lewis looked down at his paper work.

"Well..." Lewis started reading information, but the more he read, the more nervous Rikki looked. "Well, according to everything that I found online, if mermaids were hypothitaclly going to give birth, they would lay eggs." Lewis frowned. It went silent, everyone looking at one another.

"Oh thanks Lewis! That really helped!" Rikki sarcastically mentioned, making all of this even more akward then it already was.

"Okay, wait wait. I have other information." Lewis sat up, digging through more stacks of papers. Everyone sat there quietly, trying to process all of the possibilities of how this could end up. "If you were going to give birth as a human... you would have to be completely dry." Lewis was reading through documents.

"Obviously..." I rolled my eyes, grabbing the sheets of paper from Lewis's hand. "None of this is helping. Did you actually find anything useful last night?" I asked. Lewis scratched the back of his head, not exactly know what to respond.

"Well i had a lot of english homework last night so all i had time for was printing out websites of information. I didn't really review any of this before I came here." Lewis admitted in frustration.

"Well now your wasting our time." Emma snapped back, acting like she was going to leave.

"Well sorry for not finding any information on this because if it were me, I wold obviously write a science article about the life of a mermaid and post it all on the internet." Lewis sarcastically mentioned. Emma rolled her eyes.

"Okay wait guys. I think this might help." I looked down at the sheets on paper.

"Mermaids always stay the same and never change during any circumstances, only on the full moon. Meaning if Rikki was going to... have the kid, she would have to be dry or else..." I frowned, really not knowing how to continue with the sentence.

"Or else what?" Rikki started to freaking out a little bit.

"What Cleo is trying to say is that, since you guys change into a mermaid when you touch water, if you are in water or even have a single drop on you when giving birth..." Lewis sighed. "Then you give birth as a mermaid." Lewis squinted his face.

Everything went silent, Rikki having the most disgust face expression you could ever imagine.

"Okay. Is that even possible?" Rikki blurted out, Emma amused by the conversation.

"So im guessing going to the hospital won't be an option ether." Bella quietly mentioned.

"Pretty much since the chances of her touching water will be high." Lewis added.

Rikki was still her small imaginary world, her face expression still remaining the same.

"No, there's no possible way I could give birth as a mermaid." Rikki concluded.

"How do you know. We have to be prepared for the situation if it comes." Lewis tried to calm her down but Rikki interrupted him.

"I'll just make sure i don't have any water near by me. Problem solved." Rikki crossed her arms.

"So your saying that... your not going to drink any water during the process? An average birth time is about 5 hours..." But Rikki started waving her hands for him to stop.

"Okay I get it Lewis. I honestly don't want to talk about it anymore." Rikki started blushing a little bit.

"Rikki, its okay. All of us one day is going to have to do this." Bella reassured Rikki.

Emma smirked. "Hell no. At this point, i might just adopt." Emma crossed her arms, shaking her head in disappointment.

Rikki looked like she wanted to shrink down to the size of an ant and disappear, she looked so uncomfortable. I didn't blame her. I would be terrified if I were in her place as well.

"Plus all of this just seems so unrealistic. Im sure once the whole process starts, no way you'll be able to turn into a mermaid. It doesn't seem likely at all." Bella rubbed Rikki's back. Rikki gave a small sad smile, placing her face on her shoulder.

"Well I did do other research on other marine life. Since you guys are... mammals, technically, then you would probably give birth the way a dolphine would." Lewis looked at a magazine of sea life.

"Lewis, do we look like fucking dolphins to you?" Rikki crossed her arms.

"No, but you resemble one." Lewis gave a devious grin. Everything did go silent, as the room turned more awkward than ever before. Everyone looked at each other, waiting for someone to speak up.

"Well then, this sure has been fun. Too bad Will wasn't here to listen to this conversation." Emma sarcastically mentioned, getting out of her chair. "I think i'm going to Sophie's house to talk about stuff that doesn't relate to mermaids, dolphins or birth of any kind." Emma grabbed her purse. "You guys have fun." She finally said as she started to walk out of the living room. Thats when I saw it.

Rikki's eyes went wide open and her face turned pale. She immediately grabbed onto her stomach as she waited for something to happen.

"Rikki? What's wrong?" I asked, a flush of fear rushing through me.

Immediately, Rikki's shock turned into something pleasant as her eyes sparkled and her lips formed into a smile. Everyone, confused on what just happened, waited for her to say something.

"The baby... it just kicked." She bursted out in joy as something so ridiculous, all made us all excited.

"No way! Let me feel!" I ran across the room to place a hand on Rikki's stomach.

"What! I want to feel!" Emma dropped her purse on the floor and ran to where Rikki was sitting.

"Really? Is that the first time you ever felt the baby kick?" Bella asked in surprise.

"Yup! It's never happened to me before!" Rikki exclaimed, all of our hands placed on her stomach.

We all waited patiently. The excitement building up inside us as each little second past. That's when I felt it. A small movement hit my hand and I could feel the baby kicking. Everyone's eyes went wide as if we were figuring out Rikki was pregnant all over again.

"Did you feel that?" Bella asked, her bouncing up and down a little bit.

"It just hit the plam of my hand!" I squealed in excitement, making Lewis run over to where we were sitting.

"Lewis! You got to feel this!" I grabbed his hand, placing it onto Rikki's stomach.

He waited patently, as his hand settled on Rikki's stomach. Everyone watched in silence, waiting for Lewi's reaction. After what seemed like a minute, both Lewis and Rikki smiled at the feel of the baby.

"Wow." Was all Lewis could say as a huge smile appeared on Rikki's face.

"Aww! Its so cute!" I acted like I was going to cry as I hugged Lewis.

"What? You haven't even seen the baby yet." Rikki slightly laughed, not taking her eyes off her stomach.

"Ya, I know, but from that small kick that I felt, I know the babies going to be super cute." I smiled, imagining all the different ways the baby could end up looking like.

"Well, like I said, i'm meeting up with Sophie. Tell me if the baby learns how to play soccer or something. Bye guys!" Emma yelled, as she left through the front door.

We all sat there next to Rikki on the couch, waiting for the baby to kick some more. Every time it did, we just ended up getting more hyper and giggly, including Lewis. I haven't seen Rikki this happy in a long time, even though its just one of the small things in life that happen to everyone.

**A/N: Haha, I know, this was a mix of a weird and cute chapter. I know this whole birth topic would eventually come up sooner or later. Please review. Anything is great! Thanks for reading :)**


	15. Deeper into Danger

**Hey everyone. I know, this has been the longest I have ever gone without updating and for that im so sorry... again. Ive been very busy with high school and haven't had time to write my story but now with summer, i might be able to update more often. I don't know how much more i'll type but i'll do as much as i can. Well here you go :) **

**Zane's Pov**

The sun was bright and the summer heat was starting to get to my head. Either that or the tension between me and my dad have became worse ever since we got into that huge argument. I was still waiting for my pay check to come into the mail ever since i sold the cafe. Then I would tell my dad that I had the money to pay him back for the money he had spent on "college."

I had just finished taking a shower and I was looking through the pantry to see if there was any extra cereal left. To my unfortunate events, my dad slammed a door and stomped into the kitchen as he threw a piece of paper onto the cabinet.

"What the hell is this Zane? You think you can redecorate the whole guest bedroom and then pay 10,000 dollars for it! I didn't raise you to become an idiot. You honestly think you can get away with something like this?" He screamed, slamming his hand onto the wall.

I patiently poured the cereal into a bowl as I quickly grabbed the milk out of the refrigerator and an extra spoon. I was not an ounce intimidated by my dad. Not anymore at least.

It was about 30 seconds where I didn't look up or say anything that my dad became more frustrated by the way I was reacting. Usually I obeyed to everything my dad told me to do, so I could be more on his good side. At this point, I didn't care anymore.

"Explain to me Zane! How the hell are you going to pay for that 10,000 dollars you just wasted on the guest bedroom. I still need the money I was going to use to send you off to college which is a total of 100,000 dollars! I don't care if you have to work your ass off to get that money but paying 10,000 dollars for a room you don't even use is a load of bull. You get out of my house and don't come back. I'm tired of dealing with your crap and you can go sort out your life yourself. All you do is cause more problems around here." He screamed, pointing a finger towards the front door where he wanted me to leave.

Still staying silent, I took a bite of my cereal and just stared at him. He had no idea that I already had the money.

"Are you even listening to me?" He yelled one last time before he had to take a deep breath to catch up on all the screaming he's been doing for the past two minutes.

"I already have the money." I calmly said as I continued eating my breakfast.

He paused, processing the words that just came out of my mouth. "Really? You have all 100,000 dollars to give to me? So not only are you incredibly irresponsible but a liar of all sorts." Harrisons face started turning red.

"I sold the cafe." I flat out told him. "It sold for about 150,000 dollars. Enough to pay you back for the cafe and the college money I owe you. I now I have some extra money to help out with Rikki and if she needs a place to stay." I chewed on my cereal. "Thats why I am re-decorating the guest bedroom." I explained, leaving the empty bowl in the sink and starting to walk away from the kitchen.

It didn't take too long for my dad to stop me.

"Hey! Where the hell is this kind of money! I don't see any of this other than the 10,000 dollar bill I just received in the mail and the strange people painting my guest bedroom." My dad gashed out in frustration.

"Go to the bank. I'm sure the money will already be placed in your account. Not like you'll notice since you already use most of that money for your own selfish reasons." I mentioned in annoyance as I walked out of the kitchen and left my dad there in shock.

I had a small thought in the back of my mind saying I should've gotten a apartment to move into but I still didn't have enough money to pay for an apartment with the extra cash I received. Instead, I took the picture out of the magazine Rikki was glancing at the other day and tried to create it into a bedroom for her... that is if she decided to move in.

She continues to tell me that her trailer is enough room to live in but i feel that with her, her dad and the baby that there wouldn't be enough space for the three of them to live together. It wouldn't be long before the baby is born but even now, it feels like it'll take a little longer.

I walked into the guest bedroom to see three men painting the walls. The walls were painted in blue and purple and there was a corner of the room where the baby crib would be placed. With all of that, there was a door that led outside to the giant swimming pool we had. I opened the door and walked outside to the gate that led me out of my house.

I didn't have much going on right now but I knew it was all about to change within a few months. I still wished me and Rikki had a bit more of a trust bond relationship, even though we would still stay as friends. She only talks to me when necessary and I still have a hard time of trying to help her out. Its like she doesn't want me to be involved in her life.

She still hasn't gone to the doctor to see if the baby is healthy and we still don't know what the gender of the baby is. She still doesn't want to go to the hospital she's so freaked out that the baby may come out as a fish. She's pushing not only me away, but everyone who is trying to help her out. I really wish I knew of a way to make her more relaxed about the situation we're in but obviously, she never comes to me with her problems, thanks to the fact that I screwed up a about a year ago.

I was walking towards the beach when a familiar figure struck my attention. At first I thought I was mistaking her for someone else, but surely I was wrong. I already knew Dr. Denman was back around the area but I didn't know she was specifically doing research here on the Gold Coast.

My heart stopped for a few seconds as I saw her walk towards my direction. Another reason why Rikki broke up with me was because of that crazy lady. Dr. Denman already knows that there is nothing here left for her to do on the Gold Coast but still, she comes back anyways.

She was walking my direction when she also recognized me. You could see the discomfort in her face but still, she came up to me with that fake smile of hers and placed her hands into her pockets.

"Well look who is here. Mr. Zane Bennett. Long time no see." She grinned as she placed her ponytail to the front of her shirt.

Even just looking at her gave me a bad vibe. The last time I saw her, she hated me for letting the girls escape out of the moon pool. She was definitely not here to grab quick chit chat with an old friend. If anything, she probably still despises me from the previous events that had happened over three years ago.

I swallowed hard as I shook the thoughts away from my head. "Hm. You know I would say it is nice seeing you again but that would probably be considered a lie." I flat out told her while crossing my arms.

Instead of Denman being offended by my remark, she just smiled and and shrugged her shoulders.

"Don't need to be threatened Zane. I'm just here for a few months to get some information from the marine park before I set off again." She nicely replied, giving me that sweet and innocent smile.

"And if it makes you feel any better." She continued. "Ill probably be out of here in the next week. That is if that makes you and your friends feel any safer." She replied back, but more with a sweet n' sad voice. She really didn't look like she was here to do anything bad or suspicious.

"Is that really what you think? If anything, no one here cares if you're here or not." I snapped back quickly, trying to act like any of this didn't matter. Unfortunately that wasn't true. Even now, it made me nervous just thinking about what she could do to expose the girls.

"Were all just curious of why you're even here. There's nothing here for you." I added, trying to keep my cool.

"And your right Zane." Denman smiled, giving me that innocent look. "There really isn't much here for me to do and for that reason, i'll be leaving here in less than a week. I didn't come here to cause trouble for you and your friends. I just hope we can get past this so we don't have to feel intimidated by each other." She honestly admitted, giving out a small shrug.

I didn't say anything after that. Even though she was acting all sweet and graceful about the previous events that had happened to us, I knew that under all of that sugar coating there was a more threatening side to her.

"Well, this is me going. Hopefully we can just blow this over so I don't make anyone feel uncomfortable. Have a good day Zane. Maybe i'll see you around before I leave." She smiled once more before she walked off in the opposite direction that I was heading to.

I took a deep breathe before i started walking again. I hated to think this but she didn't seem all that bad. Maybe we were all over reacting a bit. Plus Denman was leaving in less than a week so at this point, there wasn't much to worry about.

I sighed in relief as I continued walking to the beach. With her leaving, everyone could relax a little more, including Rikki. She'd probably be the most relieved that she would be gone. I stepped onto the sandy beach as the ocean air filled my lungs. Now everyone can focus on what really matters once and for all...

**Bella's Pov**

The keys were dangling from my hand as I was walking to the my mail box. I was so anxious to hear the songs that my band and I recorded at the studios. I've met a great group of guys who were all originally in a band which brought me back memories of when I used to perform at the cafe.

I opened up my mail box as there were many envelopes stacked right on top of eachother. I grabbed the handful of envelopes and slammed the mail box shut, walking the direction of where my house was. Flipping each of the envelopes to the bottom of the stack, most of it was junk mail. Some of it was to my parents but I didn't find a single letter written to me.

I lost hope when I saw there weren't many letters left until I saw a giant yellow envelope dedicated to Bella Hartley. My heart started racing as I ran into the house and dropped the other letters onto the kitchen counter.

I ripped the letter open as a 5 page stapled document was inside of it. At the very bottom of the giant envelope, contained a CD of all the songs I had recorded at the college. I smiled with excitement, holding the front page straight to read what it had to say.

**Dear Bella Heartly, **

_We are very excited to say that the songs you've recorded at the studio have been approved by our music star director at the college. What we are offering is an opportunity of a lifetime and a great option to starting your music singing career. _

The letter started out. I had a huge smile on my face the whole time as I continued reading the letter. I can't believe i've come this far as to recording the songs and getting my CD published. This was way too exciting and it was only my freshman year of college.

_For these reasons, we would like to ask your permission to sign a 25,000 dollar contract as in selling your CD's in local stores. This would also include people in the band like Dans Marston, Charles Liam and Michael Fanten to sign the contract and agree to sell their music in local stores as well. _

My mouth went wide open as I read the words on the documentation. They were asking me to sell my CD in local stores? Even though it would only be sold in small parts of Australia, this was a huge deal to me. I couldn't believe that this was all happening in just a few months. This has been something i've wanted ever since I was a little girl.

_You have been a great addition to the band and the CD and we are also offering something aside to this as well. _The letter continued.

_We would like you to go on a three month recording set tour to publish more songs and create another CD. This would take place in Canberra Australia where all the recording would take place. The university is offering a private torture while on the road so that you would continue taking college courses while on your recording set tour. This is a huge opportunity that the university is willing to give you and this would earn you extra college credits on your transcript. We hope to hear from you soon and you have by the end of this month to respond back to us. Have a good day and we can't wait to work with you. _

_Sincerely,_

_Canberra recording set officials_

I was pretty much in shock after reading the short letter. There were still other documents and contracts I needed to read and fill out but I was still having a hard time adjusting to what I just read from the university.

That's when it hit me. I was going to be gone for three months. That would mean I would have to leave the Gold Coast, the university, all my friends including Will. I sat down on the couch staring down at the contract.

As much as I wanted to do this, that would mean I would have to leave and stay committed to this for 3 months. It wouldn't be all that bad, I still had the guys but without my friends and Will, it would be hard to let go.

I lightly set the documents onto the counter as I walked outside and started heading towards the beach. So many thoughts were running through my head and I couldn't control what to think. This was a huge life opportunity and this could be the start of something big. It could even lead me into doing bigger tours and small concerts.

I took off my flip flops and the let the sand go in between my toes. The sand was warm and the sun just glazed onto my skin.

"How much I wish I could go swimming..." I mumbled to myself, seeing the clear blue ocean waves fall onto the shores of the beach.

This has officially been the longest i've gone without swimming and just looking at the ocean made me feel sick to my stomach. I just wanted to dive in and feel the water wash upon my face.

I wanted to have a break from the life I had now and just forget about all the problems I had to deal with in the future. Its been so long since i've been swimming that I almost forgot why I couldn't go out into the ocean.

"Dr. Denman." I shook my head. "Like she's going to scare me into not going swimming." I madly stood up and started walking towards the ocean. I went to the rocks around the corner of the beach where it was the most secret place to dive in. As I got closer to the ocean, I had a gut feeling telling me not to go in. Emma, Cleo and Rikki have already warned multipule times about the consequences if I got caught.

I shook the thought away from my head and placed my phone and flip flops onto a giant rock.

"I'll only swim very close to the shore. I won't swim that far out." I told myself, ducking my toes into the chilly ocean water of the Gold coast. I continued walking further along the ocean until I felt my tail form and myself flopping right into the water.

Immediately I smiled as I could taste the saltiness of the water. Something I remembered every time I went swimming. The water wasn't that deep, only 3 feet deep the most so I just layed on my back and relaxed.

The sun was warm and bright and just laying on my back made me remember of all the times I used to hang out at Mako. If only I was at Mako right now...

I sat up and looked further into the ocean. I didn't even see any boats and it was so clear out there. A little further wouldn't hurt... I continued swimming as the ocean water got deeper. As I swam further into the ocean, I could see many colorful fish and the turtles swimming at the bottom of the ocean. I smiled seeing dolphins swimming with each other and enjoying themselves. This brought me back so many memories of when I used to hang out with Cleo and Rikki. The more I swam, the more I forgot about the problems and I had and the events that were happening in my life. The only one most important thing I forgot was the fact that I swam further into the ocean then what I was supposed to...

**Hehe :D I really hoped you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review if you're still reading my story. A lot more drama will be coming up and I should be updating my chapter a lot sooner. Thanks you guys. You really inspire me into writing these stories :)**


	16. A Surprise for Both of Them

**Rikki's Pov **

"Come on Zane! Can you just tell me what the surprise is and get it over with." I said with a bit of irritation as he covered both my eyes with one of his hands.

"Not yet, but I'm almost done." I heard him say as he moved me a little bit to the left side of the room. I couldn't see a thing and I was becoming a bit inpatient.

Its been at least a week before I had a chance to talk with Zane again. When I finally did get to talk to him, he informed me by saying he had a surprise for me. I didn't know if I should've of been curious or scared. Last time he had a surprise for me he bought me a whole cafe. Look at how well that got us.

At this point, I could barley do anything. I was already seven to eight months pregnant and was absolutely miserable. I probably haven't been able to properly sleep in over a few weeks my stomach was so big. I still wore loose shirts but it still didn't cover up the fact that I was pregnant.

"Okay Zane. Whenever would be a good time. I want to be able to see again." I reminded him, holding onto his arm so I wouldn't loose balance.

"Okay then." I felt Zane release his hands off my eyes as the sun light hit my face. I had to adjust to the sun before I was able to properly see again.

When I did, all I saw was a huge colorful room with a bed and a baby crib. A bit confused at what I was looking at, I relized it was the same exact room decorated in the magazine. The walls were painted in blue and purple, my bed had white, purple and blue sheets and the crib was made out of dark wood. Right next to the crib had a rocking chair and there was a door leading right outside the swimming pool.

Shocked but also excited about the room, I immediately knew what Zane was trying to do.

"So what do you think?" He interrupted my thoughts as I had to catch my breathe from looking at the room for so long.

"Its very... Wow. I can't believe you did all of this." I said in shock, looking around the room and seeing everything that there was to it.

"I knew you would like it." Zane said with a checky smile as I turned around to face him.

"Zane, we can't afford this. What about you and your dad..." I started off but he interrupted me.

"I solved the money issue with my dad. I ended up selling the cafe and with the extra money I had, I thought I could surprise you with something nice." He smiled, satisfied with the reaction I had but there was more to it then that.

"What? You sold the cafe?" I asked with a soft n' sad voice. Even though the cafe closed down almost a year ago, just knowing that it was gone and was never going to be used by us again saddened me.

"Rikki, there was nothing I could do with the cafe. All I could really do at this point was sell it. Plus now we can use the money for more important things." He reminded me, showing off the room to me.

"Zane. I can't." I told him, giving him a concerned look. The look on his face changed as I said that.

"You can't what?" He asked, a bit confused from my remark.

"I can't have this Zane! I can't move in! This isn't my place or my house. Look, I like the gesture, don't get me wrong, I really do... but I can't move in." I explained, a bit upset where this was going.

Zane crossed his arms in frustration and sighed. Its like he was prepared for me to say something like this.

"Rikki, I'm not forcing you to move in." He replied back, reassuring me there wasn't anything to it.

"What do you mean your not forcing me to move in? Isn't this the whole reason why you created this whole bedroom? You know I wanted something like this and you did it. There has't to be some sort of stings attached." I crossed my arms in a mater of factly.

"Im offering this place if you ever feel like you need to spend the night over. The baby would be right here and if you need a place to crash and stay with the kiddo, then you can do that. I know you want to have everything done at your place but this gives you more living space to do it. This way you don't need to sleep on the coach at home." He explained in a calm reasonable voice.

"So your saying my place isn't good enough?" I snapped back defensively.

"No. Thats definitely not what I'm saying." Zane started out. "If anything, this will be more of a babies room then it will be yours. It'd probably be his or her bedroom once it becomes a bit older. Im just offering it to you if you want to use it. Please don't take it in any negative way. If anything, I'm trying to help you." He explained to me.

I looked around the room and took one last good look at it. I had to admit, it was pretty awesome and was tempted to use it but that would mean i'd be falling for one of Zane's expensive gifts. I sighed and looked right back at him.

"Okay... I'll use it BUT, that doesn't mean i'm moving in." I reminded him so he wouldn't make this into such a big deal.

"Great. Not only can this be an extra room for you to stay in but also the baby room. Im just trying to make it more convenient to raise the kid." He told me, placing his hand onto the wall.

I tried to hold back a smile while looking at the room and I hated myself for loving it. It was everything i've ever wanted and was exactly perfect. It was even nicer than any bedrooms I've ever had in my life. My feet becoming tired and the weight on my body becoming a drag, I finally sat down on the bed to take a break from standing up for so long. This included me walking all the way to Zane's house.

The bed was soft and very cushy. Ether that or the amount of weight I was carrying with me was getting to my head. The sheets were very smooth and just one look of the bedroom made me more excited about the kid. It wasn't something I dreamed of having so soon but this way, I wasn't feeling terribly bad about my kids future. If anything, Zane is really the main person who is going to be helping me out with all of this. I wouldn't be able to afford any of this stuff with out him.

I felt Zane sit next to me on the bed as he placed a hand over mine. At first a bit startled by it, I just relaxed as he looked up at me.

"Are you ready for all of this?" He asked, in a soft gentle voice. He had a mix of a concerned but also excited look. We both already knew this wasn't going to be easy.

"Maybe... I don't know. I probably would be a bit more excited and prepared if it was 10 years from now." I honestly admited as I shrugged my shoulder.

He squeezed my hand as I took a deep breathe. It was comforting knowing there was somebody who was going through the same thing as me. But unfortunately, I still had mixed feelings in my head about Zane. I still had that thought in the back of my mind, wondering if he'll leave once the baby is born. I finally stood up from the bed after it became a bit weird and awkward between us.

"Look, I got to get going." I spoke up after the long silence. "I'm hanging out over at Cleo's today. But ill talk to you later?" I asked with more of a question then with a comment.

"Sure. If you need anything just call. Okay?" He suggested, still sitting on the bed as I opened the door that lead to the swimming pool. As I was about to leave, I slowly stopped and turned around to look back the room.

"And Zane." I quietly said, wondering if he heard me.

"Yeah?" He asked, looking concerned seeing the sadness that had developed in my eyes.

"Thank you. For everything. This was really nice of you." I simply said, my voice still staying very soft and low.

"You're welcome. Any time." He replied back with a small smile.

I took one last look at him before I started walking around his swimming pool and away from his house. Immediately as I started walking, the pain started developing though my feet and the pain became worse through out my back.

Unfortunately for me, I still had to walk everywhere. Me and my dad had only one car and it was the old pick up truck that he uses to go to work. Its pretty much always occupied by my dad so there was never a way to be transported anywhere.

I felt like going home and sleeping for a week but even now it was almost impossible to sleep at this stage of the pregnancy. I also promised Cleo and everyone else I would see them again before they returned back to college. I knew Cleo, Will, Bella, Lewis and Emma were all cramped up with homework and only had so much time to hang out.

I immediately sat down on the park bench as the pain through out my body became unbearable. Walking a mile to every bodies houses didn't help and there was nothing I could do about it. I knew that all of this pain would be gone in less than a few months but the upcoming events weren't going to be that easy ether. Even though all of this has felt like its been going on forever, this was only the beginning of my very long journey...

**Denman's Pov **

The whole boat was filled with boxes and everyone on the ship were packing up and ready to move on. Our time here on the Gold Coast was coming to an end and there was nothing left to do here.

"Dr. Denman." I heard Greggs voice from behind me as he had a box placed in his arms.

"Mhmm." I muttered, placing one of the underwater equipment into a empty box where it would safely be stored.

"Where do you want me to place this?" He asked, as I looked up to see what specific box was in his hands.

"Just place it right outside the boat on the dock. Its loaned equipment from the marine park and it needs to be returned." I stated, taking the box I had in front of me and closing it up so that it would be ducked taped.

"Alright then. I'll be placing the rest of the boxes underneath the boat. Everything should be cleared up by the end of the day." He reminded me, as he left to finish his job.

Looking out of the boat and at the ocean, I sighed in a bit of disappointment and regret. I didn't know what I was expecting to find back here on the Gold Coast but it sure wasn't the data and new samples we've collected over the past month. Everything seemed normal and nothing too unusual seemed to occur. If anything, that was the opposite of what I was expecting.

I had to admit, out of curiosity I still wondered about the girls and if there was a slight chance that there would still be mermaids. All of the that hope went away after staying here for at least two weeks with out any results from the underwater camera. I shouldn't of been too surprised. There was possibly no way there would still be mermaids out here. Part of that was my fault.

I still think about it everyday. What if I did something differently to find more out about the girls? What if they never had the chance to give up their powers? One of the main reasons I dragged myself back out here was because of the events that had happened in the past. If anything, I still feel guilty for everything that had happened. Though I don't know if I would of done anything differently.

We were asked by the marine park and industry to find out what was causing the population of fish to disappear. It started happening a month before the comet passed by and currently the population of fish was starting to re-grow again. So far, everything has gone back to normal and the results that we had three years ago, were the same to today's results. The only thing we couldn't figure out was why the fish started disappearing in the first place.

I always had that temptation of going back to Mako but its wasn't part of our area to work in. Our crew would get in trouble if we even tried to study or do research on the island again. That place was still very strange and mysterious to me and I knew in the back of my mind that Mako island had to be one of the causes of why the fish population went down. I just didn't know why or how.

"Denman." Vincent spoke up as I quickly turned around to face him.

Vincent was a very tall muscular man and was in his late 30's. He was one of my most trusted workers here on the boat and crew. He was very smart and very educated on marine life. He is one of the managers here on the ship and has helped me out with a lot of hand on projects.

"Denman." Vincent interrupted my thoughts as I turned around to face him. "We still haven't collected the underwater cameras. When can we retrieve them? We need to returns those back to the marine park." He quickly reminded me.

"Shoot." I softly mumbled to myself as I totally forgot to collect them back. Unfortunately for me, it would be very hard to retrieve the underwater cameras considering I already stored all of my scuba gear in one of the boxes. That would mean I would have to return all the cameras by the end of tomorrow. I already had a list of activates that I needed to get done and adding another one didn't help at all.

"Tell the the park manager we can get it back to them by tomorrow. As for today, we can just return the equipment that we have right now." I directed Vincent, continuing going back to work and packing boxes.

Immediately as Vincent left the boat, Gregg came back empty handed with nothing left to do. He usually helped me with other types of projects.

"Gregg. That reminds me." I grabbed his attention as he turned around to look at me. "We still need to collect the underwater cameras. I need you go onto my laptop and and get the location of where I left all of the cameras. I need to collect them first thing tomorrow morning." I explained to him, taking out a pen and pencil to remind myself about the task.

"What about all the pictures that you've taken over the past few months." He asked. "You have quite a bit here" He mentioned, scanning through all the pictures that were taken from the cameras and immediately downloaded onto my laptop.

"Unless anything is important in there, you can just delete them all." I flat out told him, placing the sticky note onto my data chart and putting the pen and paper into a cabinet.

The only reason why I left the cameras there was if there was any chance there were still mermaids roaming out by Mako. Out of luck, nothing seemed to appear and I stopped looking through the photos over a month ago. As I was clearing up the last few boxes that were remaining on the boat, I heard Gregg mumble and shake his head.

"Now that is awfully strange." He finally said out loud, stopping what I was doing to see what the problem was.

"Whats the matter?" I asked, looking at my laptop to still see over 500 images that I took over the course of time. At the very bottom of the screen, were a few familiar pictures that I've seen before. They weren't just any images, it looked like the same image I took when we had the photo of Emma, Cleo and Rikki swimming. Instead of three mermaids, it was only one.

The picture was very small and the chances of it being a mermaid was very low.

"Click on the image." I snapped at Greg, wanting to see the picture on full screen. He doubled tapped on the photo as it came up.

There it was. A picture of a mermaid, swimming around the coast of Mako island. Looking at the date to make sure it wasn't an old photo, I realized the picture was taken about three days ago. I couldn't believe I missed something like this. It was so extraordinary and absolute. This was something that was taken very recently meaning there were still mermaids around the Gold Coast.

"Is that... Is that?" Gregg stuttered, shocked to even see a photo like this again. He was one of the few remaining crew members that knew about the mermaids. Not even Vincent knew about my discovery on mermaids from three years ago. I'd never guess to see something like this again.

"Yes. Im pretty certain it is." I said in a soft voice so only Gregg could hear me. "Are there any more photos?" I asked, scrolling up and down the images to see if there anymore pictures left but, there wasn't. There was only one image.

"Well... who is it?" Gregg asked in curiosity as I studied the girls face. It was defiantly not Cleo but from the looks of it, the picture didn't also match up to Rikki or Emma. Looking at the picture for a solid two minutes, I couldn't make out the face of the girl. Who was she?

It made since though. Emma, Rikki and Cleo gave up their powers three years ago so it couldn't be them. If it wasn't them, then who was the girl in the photo? After taking a long look at the picture, I took my eyes of the screen and shut the laptop closed. Gregg gave me a strange look when I did that.

"Gregg. I need you to do me a favor." I calmly asked, acting like I didn't see anything.

"Yeah... sure. What is it?" He hesitated to talk, still in shock from seeing what was on my laptop.

"I need you to tell Vincent and the crew to stop bringing the water equipment back to the marine park. We may be staying here for a little bit longer..."


	17. Baby Shower?

**Hey guys! Sorry I haven't done my weekly update but my internet has been down and I've been on vacation. This chapter is supposed to lead up to the next chapter so theres going to be some interesting events coming up. And PLEASE, don't except a boy or a girl because I don't want anyone to be disappointed with the gender of the baby. Anyways, enjoy the story :)**

**Cleo's Pov**

It was grading week at our university and we finally had a 5 day weekend to do whatever we wanted. We had finished mid-term finals and already one-fourth of the school year was over. I couldn't believe how fast time was going by. It felt like only yesterday I was graduating from high school.

Walking down the sidewalk, close to where the beach was, I quickly ran behind Lewis and covered his eyes.

"Guess who?" I giggled as I planted a quick kiss on his right cheak.

"Hmmm, is it Bella? No Rikki?" He sarcastically replied as I lightly slapped him on the shoulder. He immedialty picked me up and twirled me around like I was a feather. He placed me on the ground and we both kissed each other, wrapping my arms around his neck.

The kiss was long and passionate and I could feel his warm soft lips pressing up against mine. I could smell his minty breathe and the small hint of colone that he had on his shirt. We both slowly separated apart from our kiss, both of us containing small smiles on our faces. I blushed slightly as he held my hand.

I still wore that beautiful diamond ring that he proposed to me right at the end of summer. I never let that ring out of my sight. I knew that one day, when it was the perfect time, we'd both get married. Maybe after university, we still haven't decided when.

The sun was warm and everything seemed perfect, at least for me it did. I had Lewis and everyone else... that's all I needed.

"Okay, so I called you up here because I have an idea of what we can do." I started off, swinging our arms back and fourth as we walked along the beach.

"Of what we can do? Wait, what are we doing again?" He asked, smiling at how cute I was being. I giggled, knowing he'd probably not like this.

"Okay, call me crazy but I think this would be a totally awesome thing to do for Rikki. We should throw her a baby shower!" I clapped my hands in excitement, hoping his reaction wouldn't be too bad.

"A baby shower?" He raised his eye brows, already knowing this could go really bad.

"Come on Lewis. This would be fun! Then we would have an excuse to go shopping for cute baby clothes and throw her a party." I winked, slightly bumping into his shoulder.

"Okay Cleo. I hope you understand Rikki is having a baby, not us. Hopfully we won't have a baby anytime soon." He joked around as I rolled my eyes. I was probably more excited about having the baby then Rikki was.

"Plus Rikki isn't the type of girl to like baby showers. She would probably think its corny." Lewis added, knowing some of that was true.

"I know." I slightly frowned. "But this way we can help Rikki with baby supplies. It would mean a lot to me... and her if we helped her out a bit so she isn't so stressed out with buying everything." I suggested, knowing Rikki was no where near to affording toys and clothes for a kid.

"Isn't that the reason why she has Zane?" Lewis seriously asked, crossing my arms and giving him that look. "Kidding." He faked a small smile but I knew he wasn't.

"Lewis. Can we just be a tiny bit more supportive of her. She really needs us and maybe one of the reasons why she's pushing us away is because we haven't been more open to her." I added.

"Well maybe if you, Emma and Bella didn't get into that huge fight last summer..." Lewis started but I stopped him.

"Yeah I know Lewis. We don't need to bring up past problems." I waved him off. "Plus Rikki, Emma, Bella and I are totally over those fights. What really matters is that Rikki knows were here for her and that she can trust us." I concluded, reassuring Lewis that everything was okay.

"So this baby shower is supposed to help how?" Lewis asked again.

"Thanks Lewis. You really make a very helpful boyfriend..." I sarcastically rolled my eyes.

"You mean finance?" Lewis corrected me, adding in a quick wink and smirk.

I giggled, looking at my engagement ring and then grabbing onto Lewis's hands where we intertwined fingers.

"I love you." I whispered only loud enough were he could hear me.

"I love you too." He also whispered back, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and giving me a quick kiss on my head.

The day was very warm and I could feel the beach wind from a distance. It seemed like nothing could possibly go wrong at this point. We were both at the same university, we were engaged and both of our futures seemed perfectly intacted.

"So does that mean you're helping out with the baby shower?" I quickly added, giving him that cute puppy eyed smile. He sighed.

"Okay, if this is truly important to you and Rikki, I'll help." He finally gave in, giving my shoulder a tight squeeze.

"Great! I'll text Emma and Bella right now. I'm sure they'd love to help out." I took my phone out of my pocket, sending a quick text to the two of them.

Rikki wasn't into these type of social gatherings, but I knew she would appreciate this in the future. This would be the best way to show her that we were still good friends and that we were here for her. This past year has been kind of sketchy for the four of us and all I wanted to do was to make things right, for the all of us.

**Bella's Pov**

"A baby shower?" Emma crossed her legs, not liking the idea of where this was going.

"Yes, it would be perfect. We can surprise her with it to." Cleo smiled, trying to get everyone on board.

I thought about it for a second and I had to agree with Emma. I didn't think Rikki was into parties and surprises. She has tended to keep her pregnancy low profiled and didn't like to talk about it much. Even though It wasn't the best idea in the whole world, Rikki might end up needing the help. This way it would feel more like a baby shower instead of a charity.

"I think its a good idea." I finally added into the conversation, supporting Cleo with her plan.

Immediatly Will gave me a unsure look. He didn't really know how this whole baby shower would turn out to be, but he nodded his head. He also wanted to be as supporting as possible. He was still one of Rikki's good friends.

"Yeah, I can help set it up. We can do it at my boat shed if you want to." Will added, having an arm wrapped around my shoulder.

"Thats great. We can buy some gifts for her and we'll have it at Will's boat shed. Im sure Rikki would like that." Cleo cheerfully smiled, glad to know that Will and I were on track with this.

"I just think this would all be too weird. I don't think Rikki wants to be celebrating her own pregnancy." Emma mentioned, bringing up a good point. You could see the disappointment on Cleos face.

"We wouldn't exactly be celebrating her pregnancy... we would just be supporting her and helping her out with baby clothes and stuff. You know..." Cleo tried to find a way to make it sound some-what decent.

"Okay... so would it just be the seven of us?" Will asked, counting everyone in the room and Rikki. Everyone kinda stopped and looked at each other, nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, it can be a small baby shower. Nothing too big." Cleo added, making sure this would all work out.

Unfortunately, everyone forgot about one small problem. It was the first thing I thought of right when Will brought it up. I sighed, not wanting to be the person to bring up this topic.

"Were forgetting one person." I brought up. Cleo looked at me in confusion.

"Zane..." I quietly said, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

Everyone exchanged uncomfortable looks. That pretty much was the buzz kill of that day.

"Please don't tell me your inviting that son of an idiot." Will crossed his arms, disappointment spreading through out his face.

"Well that son of an idiot is the father of Rikki's baby so I don't think theres any way of excluding him from his own baby shower." I reminded them, not liking where this was going.

"Mmmm, well this is exciting." Emma sarcastically mentioned, tapping her fingers on the coach. "Told you it was a bad idea." She mumbled to herself. It soon became silent after that, everyone thinking of any other ideas of what we could do.

"Okay, so we invite Zane." Cleo finally spoke out. "Were not going to stop that from helping Rikki. She really needs our help and support. We need to set aside our issues and focus on what really is important." Cleo explained, everyone looking at each other with unsure expressions.

Even though this was something Cleo really thought was important for Rikki, I had other things going through my mind. All I was thinking about for the past week was the invitation the Canberra studio records offered me as a career opportunity. I would end up leaving for a whole three months, leaving everyone behind; including Will. Even though this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, I was still in university and the thought of me leaving for this long was a dreadful thought.

I hadn't told anyone about my offer, probably because I didn't know how they would react and if this was a good idea. Before I knew it, my CD's would be in stores all across Australia. I bit my lip, excited but also confused on if I should go or not.

Cleo was still obviously ranting about the baby shower and the things we would do to set it up. Will was holding my hand, pretending to nod his head in agreement with everything Cleo was saying. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I needed to tell someone about this.

"Will?" I whispered, so nobody elses in the group would hear me. He gave me a conceded look as he saw the anxiety in my eyes. He immediately could tell there was a problem by the way I looked and talked.

"Yeah? What is it?" He squeezed my hand, not excepting me to look so anxious and concerned with whatever problem I was having. Lewis and Bella kinda noticed we were having a side conversation but Cleo just kept on ranting about what we were planning. I swallowed hard, as I stared at the rest of the group.

"Can I talk to you. This is kinda important." I flat out told him, scooting slightly off the coach as If I were about to stand up. Cleo slowly stopped talking as she looked at the both of us. She gave me that look wondering if she should continue talking or not.

"Right now?" Will asked, now worried of the possibilities that could be happening. Emma looked at me, not knowing what was going on. Cleo stopped, holding her two hands together as if she was going to say something else.

"Okay then..." Cleo mentioned awkwardly. "Are we on board with this?" She asked; everyone staring at the two of us.

"Can I just talk with you outside? Please?" I finally asked Will as he looked at Cleo and then back at me. He gave me a silent nod as he helped me stand up off the coach.

"Hey, where are you guys going?" Cleo asked slightly annoyed, knowing we weren't paying attention to anything she was saying.

"Cleo, I really do like your idea and everything but can you please give me a minute. I'll be back as soon as I can." I replied honestly, just wanting to get out of the over heated living room. Cleo gave me a questionable face but nodded her head as she suspected something going on.

"Thank you. Ill be right back." I dragged Will along outside to the front door. I took the knob of the door and closed it shut, making sure it was only the two of us that were talking. Immediately Will's concerned expression turned into a deep worry as the panic rose inside of him.

"Bella. Whats wrong? Are you okay? You really looked upset back there." Will placed both of his hands of my shoulder, not understanding why I was in such distress. I took a deep breath, trying to keep my thoughts clear through my head.

"Okay, so you know how I've been accepted by the music program?" I started asking, Will nodding his head in confusion. It did take him a little by surprise when I him asked that, thinking at first I was in some sort of trouble or something.

"Yeah." He replied, being very focused on what I was asking him.

"Okay well, i've been doing very well with my music program all semester. Ive recored my own CD, have started up a band with a group of guys at the college and we've been very successful so far." I explained to him, talking in a very fast pace. I was moving side to side as If I couldn't keep still. I still didn't know why I was so worried about this.

"Bella, I dont understand. Why are you telling me this?" Will continued asking me more questions, now even more confused then when we started talking. He didn't get why we had to leave to talk about this.

"Because I just got this really huge offer from the head quarters of the Canberra recording studios and they want to publish my CD and all the songs that me and my band have been recording at the music studio. They're offering me and my band a 25,000 dollar contract and want to sell our songs all over Australia." I finally spat out, not liking where this was going.

Instead of Will being upset, he developed a huge smile across his face and squeezed both my hands.

"Are you kidding me Bella? Thats incredible! You've been wanting this all your life! I can't believe you finally reached your goal of publishing your own album! Im so proud of you." Will exclaimed in excitement, all the worry he had built inside of him was gone. "Why do you sound so upset? We should be going out and celebrating this!" He gave me a encouraging smile, knowing how much i've worked to get this far.

"Will! Will! You don't understand." I waved my hands in front of him, stopping him from ranting on. "If I agree to the contract, I would be leaving to Canberra Studios to recored a better, more professional album. That means I'll be leaving for three months." I finally said, the look on Wills face dropped as he heard me say those words.

He paused too think about what I just said, I bit taken back that I would be gone for so long.

"Three months?" He quietly asked, using his thumb to slightly rub my hands. I nodded my head in disappointment, wishing there was some other way. Will let go of my hand, sad that I would leave like this.

"Bella, you are such a talented beautiful person and you've been working all your life for this." Will started off. "I don't care if you leave for five to ten years... I am totally here to support you and would never let something like this come in-between us." He sweetly told me, placing a blonde length of my hair behind my ear. "You should go. You need to go. You've been wanting this forever." He finally concluded, looking up into his blue eyes, surprised at what he just said.

"You want me to go?" I asked in shock, not expecting him to answer like that.

"Of course I don't want you to go but, you should. This is such a huge oppurtunity and it may be the only chance you get. I don't want you to stop yourself from going because of me." He replied in a very caring voice, using his finger to stroke my right check. I smiled, knowing I had the sweetest person in the world by my side.

"But what about everyone else? What about Rikki?" I quickly asked but he smiled at how concerned I was.

"And they'll all be here rooting for you. Im sure once they hear about it, they would be just as proud. Its only three months Bella. Before you know it, you'll be back at school with your CD's sold in many stores across Austrilia. This is not something I would pass by." He looked deeply into my eyes, a small smile developing across my face.

"Thank you." I whispered only so loud he could hear it. With that I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him.

"I'm so proud of you. You're going to do great!" He gently rubbed my back, keeping my arms around his neck. After a solid ten seconds, I let go of him and held his hand.

"Come on. Im sure everyone would want to hear about this." He kissed the top of my head, walking along side of me as he opened the front of Cleo's house. I felt a huge glowing feeling inside of me, glad to hear Will supported me on this. Even though I would deeply miss him, I knew there would be no way to pass a opportunity like this. I would finally be accomplishing my dreams.

**A/N: Hehe :D Well there you go. A Clewis/Wella chapter for all the people who ship those couple. It's something I haven't written in a while and i'm sorry for that but here you go. Please leave reviews, you guys really are my inspiration! :))) Exciting plans for the next chapter so please stick around for that. You guys are awesome! :P**


	18. Expect The Unexpected

**No Pov**

"Okay so everything is ready? I don't want to end up forgetting anything!" Cleo was freaking out, walking back and forth across the room.

"Cleo, the baby shower dosen't even start for another 3 hours." Bella said in a matter of factly. She didn't understand why Cleo was stressing out so much about this. Maybe she just wanted to do something extra nice for Rikki. A main reason for this is because Cleo felt bad that Rikki haden't been able to attend college with Bella, Cleo and Emma. It was 8 in the morning and the baby shower wasn't even going to start til 11.

"Cleo, we've been here since 7 in the morning. Is there any way we could take a coffee break or something?" Bella twisted her noise as she heard her stomach grumble. She hadn't eaten anything since last night and she was starving.

"Hmm, fine but I just need to get one last thing." Cleo held out her pointer finger as she ran across the room to grab something. I smirked at the way she was beahaving. I still didn't understand why she was so excited about this.

With that Will entered into his own boat shed with a huge present in his hand. By the way it was wrapped, we could easily tell it was a baby carrier.

"Hey, you guys are here early." Will mentioned, shutting the door behind him.

"Will! Your late! We need to preapare for this." Cleo was cleaning some of the stuff off the floor so it wouldn't look so messy.

"What? I thought this started at 11." Will looked down at his watch, confused by her remark. With that he put the present down on the floor and gave Bella a quick peek on her forehead. "And good morning to you." He smiled, handing Bella a cup of steaming hot coffee.

"Hey, how did you know?" Bella tryed to hold in her smile but obviously failed. Will always did sweet things like this for Bella.

"What are you talking about? This is what I do for you every morning before we enter our classes at the university." Will smirked as he wrapped an arm around Bella to keep her warm.

"Okay you guys, is there any way we could do this later? I need someone to order pizza or something." Cleo mentioned, looking through her bag to try to find her phone.

"Why don't we do that an hour before the party starts so that the pizza doesn't get cold." Bella suggested, also wanting a way to get herself out of the small boat shed. "Its great what your doing Cleo but i'm still a bit out of it and need to get some fresh air." Bella had one hand to hold her steamy cup of coffee and the other hand to hold Wills. It was a chilly morning and the fog was coming in so it was good to have two things of warmth by her side.

"Okay. I'll call Emma to see if she's awake by now." Cleo finally found her phone and started typing in the numbers to Emma's cell. "And don't come back any later than 30 minutes." Cleo reminded Bella one last time before her and Will were walking side by side along the sidewalks of the beach.

* * *

><p>Rikki took her last few footsteps to the front of Zane's door as the pain in her back was working up again. Rikki knew that walking for such a long distance at this stage of the pregnancy was really risky but she needed to talk to Zane. There were still things she needed to have planned out and items she needed to buy before even having a baby.<p>

Knocking at his door while placing one hand on her back for support, Zane opened the door ten seconds later with a bit of a shocked expression on his face. She was wearing a white and red striped t-shirt with some jean shorts that went down to her thighs. Even though Rikki was pregnant, she still looked amazing and still had that beautiful bright glow on her face which was covered up by a few strands of curly blonde hair.

Snapping out of his two second trace, Zane's faced filled with worry and concern as he looked at how big her stomach was.

"Rikki? What are you doing here? Did you walk all the way here? You could've of called me and I would of picked you up." Zane gestured but Rikki just placed an arm on her hip, amused at the concern that was spreading through out his face.

"Zane. I'm fine. Its actually healthy to take walks during your pregnancy so the baby stays healthy." Rikki mentioned, something that she had read out of an article.

"I know but I don't want you to get hurt." Zane helped Rikki walk into his house as he closed the door behind him. "I still can't believe you walked here all by yourself." Zane crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. Rikki slowly took her time as she sat onto the coach, the weight of her stomach making it harder for her to move around as fast.

"Yeah, the pain in my back has been getting worse so I decided to walk it off." Rikki mentioned, still having one hand to help support her sore weak back. "I'm just kinda sore from all of this and sitting around at home all day isn't making it feel any better." Rikki admitted, slowly letting her head relax on the head rest of the coach.

Her feet were in pain, her legs cramped up all the time, her breast were extremely sore and most of all, the baby was kicking all the time. She wouldn't be surprised if she had a giant bruise on the inside of her stomach from how much the baby kicked.

Rikki moaned a little as she felt a quick jolt of pain go through out her back. She immediately used both of her hands to support her body, but it didn't help.

"Are you okay? Should we take you to a doctor?" Zane asked but Rikki shook her head.

"No doctors. Really, I'm fine." Rikki said in a raspy voice, trying to hide how she felt but her eyes clearly gave it away. It didn't look good.

"Well, if you need some pain killers, I have some in the kitchen..." Zane pointed behind him but she shook her head again, denying that she needed any assistance.

"Im pregnant Zane. Taking medication wouldn't be healthy for the baby. Plus it was only a one minute thing. It happens all the time. See, look, I'm much better." Rikki slowly sat up, feeling the pain in her back slowly disappear.

Zane sighed, knowing there would be no reason to argue with her. Zane had to trust her and know that she had all of this under control. Trust was another reason why they never got back together, it was also something he didn't want to use to break them apart even more.

"So what is it? There must be a good reason that you dragged yourself all the way out here to see me." Zane gave a small smile as he sat besides Rikki on the coach.

"Oh don't get too excited about it. Im just here to say that I need to do a few more shopping sprees before the baby arrives. Im trying to set everything up in my room and its a bit stressful to know I'm due in three weeks and still not have everything ready." Rikki mentioned with some concern in her voice.

What Rikki didn't know was that there was a baby shower coming up and that there would be more than enough baby clothes and supplies to go around for a year. Everyone was keeping it a surprise and Zane still had a slightly bad gut feeling about this party. He wanted Rikki to be happy but he didn't know if this was the way to do it.

"Alright, how about this Friday?" Zane shrugged his shoulder, trying to come up with a excuse of when they could do it. In all reality, by the end of the baby shower, she wouldn't really need to go shopping anymore.

"Great. Its not like I really have much of a transportation system. Cleo also might accompany us since she also wants to come shopping with me." Rikki mentioned, reminding Zane and herself that it was something else she needed to put on her list of things to do.

"Sure. I guess." Zane shrugged his shoulder, not too thrilled about the idea of Cleo tagging along. The whole reason of why Zane did this stuff wasn't because he was all crazy about shopping for the baby, but because he actually wanted to spend some time with Rikki. Sure, he actually was starting to warm up to the idea of having a baby, but Cleo coming along would end up making him the third wheel of the group.

Rikki knew that Zane and her friends were not very close but if Zane was serious about getting involved in the babies life, he would need to learn how to tolerate Rikki's friends. Even though it didn't seem that hard, Zane still didn't get along with most of Rikki's friends and thats what concerned him most about the baby shower. He didn't know if it would go well or cause more problems.

"Okay, and I also came here to tell you that I might be leaving here next week." Rikki finally said, getting to the point of why she walked all the way to Zane's house to talk.

Zane frowned, not understanding what she meant by that. She might be leaving here next week? What was that supposed to mean?

"What? Why are you leaving? Where exactly are you going?" Zane scratched the back of his head, not liking where this was going. Rikki sighed, knowing that Zane wouldn't like the sound of this.

"Okay, since this is the mid semester of the university, the college is asking students to invite friends and family for a weekend picnic or something. Ill be spending the night at the college with Cleo, Bella and Emma... Only for the weekend." Rikki cleared up.

"No." Zane immediately replied, shaking his head in disagreement. This took Rikki by surprise.

"What do you mean no? That wasn't a question. Im going no matter whether you like it or not." Rikki snapped back, mad that Zane would tell her to do something like that. She knew that the last time she went to the college, it didn't go as excepted but she was only going to spend one night there and she hasn't been to the university in over three months. She wanted to visit Cleo, Emma, Bella and everybody else there that was going there.

"Rikki, you already know why I don't want you to go there. Its so risky and I don't want you to end up having early labour or something. You could very easily get hurt and I don't think its safe." Zane tried to convince Rikki but she only crossed her arms.

"This is because of last time, huh? Im only staying there for two days. Plus this is a picnic, not a huge college party. Parents and grandma's are gonna be there. It won't be much of a party." Rikki replied back, a little disappointed it wasn't a actual college party. She really just needed an excuse to leave the Gold Coast. To be able go back to the university with everybody else was something she wouldn't want to miss out on.

"I know but you'll be an hour away from home and I don't want anything bad to happen. Maybe the next picnic but right now is not the best time to go." Zane calmly responded, but Rikki didn't take it very well. She slowly started standing up from the coach, still remaining her one hand on her back.

"Zane, I'm sick and tired of you telling me what to do! I don't need you to protect me and am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Just because i'm pregnant doesn't mean I should drop everything i'm doing to just sit around on the coach and do nothing. I can't do this for the rest of my life." Rikki tried to hold herself from yelling, her back pain becoming worse as she continued talking.

"I know Rikki but it could be dangerous." Zane stood up with her, but Rikki started walking towards the front door.

"You know what Zane, Ive been bossed around by everybody about what I should and shouldn't do. Im getting tired of this and I feel like all of my freedom has been stripped away from me. I can't do this anymore Zane. I thought by telling you this, it would make us closer friends but I guess I was wrong." Rikki finally spoke out as she opened the door and started speed walking outside.

"Wait Rikki." Zane chased after her but it just made Rikki even more furious than she already was.

"Just go away Zane. I don't even want to talk to you." Rikki was heading towards Will's boat shed, not knowing what she was getting herself into. The more she walked, the more her feet hurt and it just made her body even more sore than usual. Immediately another jolt of pain went through out her back, but she ignored it and kept walking towards the direction of where Will lived.

"Come on Rikki! I didn't mean to upset you. Im just thinking about what's best for you and the baby." Zane tried to explain but Rikki continued along the sidewalk with out stopping.

"Really? What's best for me and the baby or what's best for you?" Rikki mumbled to herself, seeing the light blue shed from all the way across the street.

"Please Rikki. Don't put this on me like that. Im really doing everything to help, so forgive me if i'm just a little concerned." Zane's voice got deeper as he was trying to restrain himself from arguing with her.

With that, Rikki saw Cleo, Bella and Emma walking away from the boat shed. Following along side of them was Lewis and Will who seemed to be occupied with boxes that were wrapped up in blue paper. When Cleo looked up, her eyes widened to see me and and Zane here.

"What the he-" Cleo started saying as she quickly jogged up the grassy field to catch up with Rikki and Zane.

"What are you guys doing here? You're not supposed to be here for another 30 minutes." Cleo looked down at her clock and back at everybody else. She didn't expect Rikki and Zane to come so early.

"Come on. Just talk to me. I don't want you to be mad at me." Zane held out his hand, interrupting the middle of Cleo's comment.

"I'm done talking to you. Just leave." Rikki crossed her arms, not daring to make eye contact with Zane. He sighed, not knowing if he should try to work things out with Rikki or walk away. He didn't want the baby shower to start off with an argument.

"You guys, what's going on? Is everything okay?" Cleo crossed her arms, but Rikki could clearly see everything that was going on inside the boat shed. It looked like a small party was about to take place in there.

"Cleo, what is this?" Rikki started walking to the boat shed, not stopping to say hi to Emma and Bella.

"Rikki, it was supposed to be a surprise and I didn't think you would be here until eleven..." Cleo started out but Rikki curled up her fist and turned around to see everyone that was standing there and staring at her.

"Okay, first of all, whatever your doing, I don't want it. I don't want this to be some sort of charity because you think I can't take care of myself or buy my own stuff. Second of all..." Rikki turned around to face Zane. "I don't need anyone to help me OR protect me. I don't want apart of any of this and am done with all of you guys. I'm out of here" Rikki stormed off, Cleo running after her.

"Rikki, wait! Don't go. Were really just trying to help you." But with that, Rikki slightly jogged towards the edge of the dock and dived right into the water. It only took a few seconds for her whole body to disappear and before they knew it, Rikki was gone.

Zane's mouth was wide open and everybody was standing there speechless. They couldn't believe what she had just done. Rikki was almost 9 months pregnant and she had just jumped into the ocean and swam off. They weren't even certain if Denman was gone or not.

"She can't just leave like that! She could get hurt or worse." Zane started freaking out, not knowing what to do. They officially pushed her off the edge and stopping Rikki wasn't going to be easy.

With out a single word, Cleo immediately dived off of Wills dock and into the ocean, making a small and perfect splash into the water. Lewis face turned into shock as Cleo followed after her. With that done, Emma and Bella gave each other awkward stares, not knowing if they should follow them or stay where they were. After a few silent seconds, they both nodded their heads in agreement and also jumped into the water to follow after Rikki and Cleo.

With that, Rikki, Cleo, Bella and Emma were out of sight and already far off into the ocean. They were long gone by now, leaving Zane, Will and Lewis there by themselves. This was defiantly no ones idea of how the day was going to begin.

* * *

><p>Rikki was far out into the ocean, her blonde hair following right behind her. She was swimming as fast as she could and to her surprise, it was a lot easier for her to swim than it was for her to walk or do anything standing up. When she was in the ocean, she felt ten times lighter than she was on land. She never felt this great and swimming already made her feel better.<p>

She missed the taste of salt water on her tounge and how the fishes were always swimming in the coral reefs below her. She missed how all the dolphins used to swim besides her and how this was something she used to do every day.

Rikki slowly came to a stop as she saw the small under water cave entrance into the island, something she haden't seen in what felt like forever. Taking a few moments to appreciate the entrance of the cave, she used all her force to carry her body with her and continue swimming along. It felt like there were a thousand bricks in her stomach, causing her to swim slower than usual. She finally made it onto the surface of the moon pool, taking in a deep breath of air when she saw the walls surrounding the entrance. Most of all, she missed swimming here at Mako island and staying at the Moon Pool whenever she felt like it.

This was her safe secret area. A place she would go when she was stressed out or needed a place to clear her mind. If swimming wasn't so hard for her right now, she would be swimming all over mako island. She hasn't been here in over 4-5 months and it still surprised her to this day that she even lasted that long.

Swimming to the very edge of the pool, she flipped her self on her back to relax her body and her stomach. Even though Rikki felt much lighter in the water, her back pains continued on as it did on land. Immediately another jolt of pain went through out her back and stomach causing her to jerk her body in pain.

She grabbed onto her stomach, not knowing why the pain went there instead. The only time her stomach hurt was when the baby was kicking, but this was defiantly not a kick. It was something else.

With that, Rikki saw Cleo's head pop out of the water as she opened her eyes to look around the place. She took a deep breath, exhausted by how long she held her breath for. She wasn't used of swimming for this long and she haden't done it in months.

"Rikki! Oh my gosh! Are you okay? I was so worried about you!" Cleo said in worry, swimming next to Rikki and laying her arms on the edge of the moon pool.

Rikki didn't make eye contact with her, looking straight in front of her for the next minute. She didn't want to talk to anybody, she wanted to enjoy the peace and serenity while she had it.

"Wow! This place gives me so many memories..." Cleo looked up the volcano and observed the moon pool as if it were her first time here. Rikki still not talking, Cleo swam next to her and placed her arms in the water.

"I know this is stressful for you Rikki and I really want to be here for you but if you keep pushing us away, then I don't know what I can do to help you." Cleo talked in a calm inside voice, doing her best to get Rikki to listen to her.

"You really are my best friend and I want you to know that you can talk to me whenever you want, but swimming out to Mako island when we don't know if its safe, is really risky. I can't afford to have you get hurt. Everyone is really concerned about you." Cleo honestly said, trying to do everything to comfort Rikki.

Rikki took a deep breath, not sure how to relate with Cleo. Cleo had it all. Money to go to University, a fiancee, family, friends... and it felt like all of that was just crumbling down on Rikki.

"Its just you don't understand Cleo. No matter how hard I try to explain everything thats going on, you won't get it. Not even Zane understands how stressful this is for me. I literally gave up my life and college for this and to this day, I wonder if I made the right choose." Rikki hesitated to talk, trying her best not to sound sad.

"I want to talk to you. I want to trust you guys but right now, I don't know if I can." Rikki mumbled, looking down at her stomach and then back at Cleo. Her blue eyes gave it away on how upset she really was.

With that, two more heads rose up from to the surface of the moon pool and they saw both Bella and Emma swimming there. They both looked exhausted and were both breathing heavily as they swam towards Rikki and Cleo. They felt both good but at the same time guilty that they decided to swim off to Mako. They already knew of the risks and consequences that were involved if they got caught.

"Rikki! Cleo! What is going on! We shouldn't be out here!" Emma exclaimed, knowing anyone could come into the moon pool at any time. They didn't know if it was safe for them to be out there yet.

"You guys didn't have to come out here. I was just making sure Rikki was okay." Cleo responded, surprised that Emma and Bella swam all the way out here to find them.

"I know, but we didn't know if we should of stayed or followed you guys." Bella replied with concern, seeing that Rikki looked a bit upset.

"But were all fine..." Cleo reassured them. "Right Rikki?" Cleo asked, not getting a response from her. She waited a moment but she just sat there, not moving a muscle, like she was frozen or something. "Rikki?" Cleo asked again but this time, Rikki turned herself around and used her hands to grab onto the edge of the moon pool.

She felt her stomach tighten and her back jolt in pain again as the feeling in her body got worse. She used one hand to grab her back and the other to grab her stomach. She had never been in this much pain before in her life. It was unbearable.

"Oh god." Rikki screeched out, trying to keep herself to float ontop of the water. The more she sat there, the worse it hurt and she just wanted to get out of there.

"Whats wrong? Are you okay?" Cleo asked in a panicky voice, not knowing why Rikki was behaving like this.

"Its my back. Its hurting like crazy and my stomach keeps tightening up. I don't know why, this has never happened to me before durning my pregnancy." Rikki tried to talk in one sentence but her voice strained as tried to explain to the girls what was hurting her.

Emma widned her eyes, knowing exactly what this was. Giving a strange look at Cleo and Bella, she swam up close to Rikki to observed how she was doing.

"Rikki... How long have these back and stomach aches been lasting?" Emma asked, trying to keep Rikki and herself calm.

"Um... I don't know. Probably all morning." Rikki moaned as her stomach tightened up again. She just wanted the pain to stop but it wouldn't. This has happened before but never for so long.

"Rikki. Then it only means one thing... your in labour." Emma spat out, everyone turning around as Cleo's mouth dropped. Rikki immediately widened her eyes, the horror showing up on her face.

"What are you talking about? Thats impossible! Im not even due for another 3 week!" Rikki groaned, trying to convince herself it wasn't true. She wasn't prepared for this. She wasn't ready to have a baby. This couldn't be happening right now.

"Really? Because I'm the one who estimated when you would deliver the baby and I could be completely off. The only way certain to know when the baby is born is to go to a doctor. Ive only been in nursing school for 3 months so I could've estimated wrong." Emma explained, not knowing if that helped or not.

"Well thanks Em because now i'm 3 weeks be- OH GOD!" Rikki yelled, immediately collapsing into the water as pain took over her body. She felt her stomach contract and her back jerk in pain. Realization hit her as Emma said those words. Immediately panic rose inside Rikki and she didn't know what to do. She was basically stuck out on the middle of an island and had no one to help her.

"Okay Rikki. Just breathe! Were gonna help you through this." Emma said calmly holding her hand, but nothing Emma said made Rikki feel better.

"Just make it stop." Rikki gritted through her teeth, breathing in and out.

"We need to get her out of the water so she can give birth as a human." Bella suggested, but Rikki just shook her head in denial.

"No! I can't do this now! Maybe its a false alarm." Rikki squeezed Emma's hand, her heartbeat racing at a hundred miles per hour. She would do anything not to have the baby here.

"Cleo! Get help! Tell Lewis to bring towels and some baby supplies. I don't know if Rikki will be able to get out of here." Emma yelled out to Cleo, giving out directions and doing her best to keep Rikki calm.

With that, another contraction hit Rikki hard and she started to scream. She was breathing heavily and she felt tears rolling down her checks.

"Cleo! Hurry up! I don't know how long I can do this for." Rikki said in fast rapid breaths, now using both her hands to hold onto Emma.

With that, Cleo ducked underneath the water and swam as fast as she could towards land. She needed to find Lewis and get help as fast as she could. She already felt bad leaving her friend out there with barley anyone there to help her. This was it. This is what everyone has been waiting for for the past 9 months and unfortunately, none of it was going to be easy...


	19. A Beautiful Baby is Born

Cleo was swimming as fast she could, using all the power in her tail to swim across the ocean. Her heart was racing fast and the adrenaline was building up inside her body, knowing that Rikki was depending on her. Everybody was depending on her. She had to warn the boys about this.

Swimming up to the docks of the boat shed, everybody was gone. Will wasn't there, Lewis wasn't outside and Zane probably left out of anger.

"Shoot!" Cleo mummbled to herself, dragging herself onto shore and using her powers to clear all the water off her tail. In no time at all, she was dry and had her two walking legs back. With a hustle knowing it already took her 7 minutes to swim back to main land, she ran into Will's boat shack but no one was there. Not even Sophie was there.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Come you guys!" Cleo said out loud, running out of Will's boat shed as fast as she could. She sprinted to the closet side walk and headed towards the direction of Lewis's apartment. Lewis couldn't of been too far ahead... unless he was right now taking a boat out to Mako island. What if that's where everyone was going? To Mako island? Then she would of missed the chance to tell everyone that Rikki was in labour.

Cleo still running down the side walk, trying to spot a glimpse of any of the three boys, she saw Lewis. He had his hands in his pockets and he was walking at a normal pace. He acted like nothing had ever happened.

Using the rest of her energy to run up to Lewis, she grabbed onto his shoulder to help her come to a complete stop. She was breathing heavily and she could't get herself to talk.

"Rikki- It's Rikki- She... Needs... Help." Cleo panted, trying to slow down her breathing and her heartbeat. It was almost impossible for her talk. Lewis frowned, confused at what she was trying to say. He helped Cleo stand up and tried to get her to calm down by rubbing her back.

"Hey! Is everyone okay?! What happened?" Lewis asked in shock, not understanding why Cleo was so tensed up. She rested her hands on her legs, slowing down her very heavy breathing. She swallowed hard trying to get her self to talk again. She couldn't just stand around, waiting for Lewis to guess what was going on.

"Its- Its Rikki! She's having contractions and she's stuck out at Mako island! I don't what to do Lewis and I really need someone to help us!" Cleo's voice went raspy, trying to contain herself from panicking. So much pressure was put on her shoulders and she felt like she was going to explode. She already felt bad for leaving Rikki out there in the middle of no where.

Lewis eyes went wide open, hearing the words that came straight out of Cleo's mouth. This is something he did not expect and knowing from past previous problems, chasing after them to Mako island didn't seem like it was going to help. Lewis shook his head, knowing that thinking about the situation would do no good.

"Wait! What? She's having contractions!? Does that mean she's in labour!?" Lewis asked, still surprised that it was happening so soon. A early delivered pregnancy could end up being fatal for the baby. Plus Rikki was basically stuck out in the middle of no where which made it even worse.

"I don't know... I mean yes... Atleast thats what Emma thinks! I don't know what to do Lewis!" Cleo tried to get herself to calm down, but she started panicking again and her heartbeat started to rise.

"Okay! So Rikki isn't by herself?" Lewis relaxed a little bit by the sound of Emma's name.

"Yes! She's with Bella and Emma but they're pretty much clueless on what they need to do. Emma has only been in nursing school for a mid semester and we don't want to end up hurting Rikki or the baby! I just wish we could take her to the hospital or something, but I don't think she could swim back." Cleo talked in a fast motion, pacing back and fourth across the side walk in panic and disappointment. You could already see the tears coming from her eyes at how stressed out she was.

"Okay. Let me call Zane to inform him about this. I have some clothes and supplies back at Will's place, but I don't know where he went." Lewis took out his cell phone, scrolling all the way to bottom of his contacts to find Zane's name.

Cleo bit her nail at how nervous and freaked out she was. She felt like this was her fault. If she never started the whole baby shower, maybe this wouldn't of ever happened in the first place. If Rikki or the baby didn't come out okay, she would never be able to forgive herself for this. She had to go back and help Rikki.

Running off the side walk and towards the sandy parts of the beach, she jumped into ocean, not caring if anyone saw her or not. This was it. This was her time to help as much as she could. With the one flick of her tail, she swam across the ocean at the fastest speed possible, not caring if her heart was going to break at how tired she was. There was no way she would stand back and do nothing. This was her chance to show Rikki that she really wanted to help and be there for her, no matter what.

* * *

><p>Zane was speed walking towards his house, feeling like a complete idiot for even trying to get involved in Rikki's life. He felt mad, frustrated and upset all in one day and at this point, he didn't care anymore.<p>

No matter what he did for Rikki, she would just keep pushing him away. If Zane didn't get involved in her life, she would get mad. If Zane cared too much about Rikki, she would get mad. What exactly did she want? No matter what he did for her, it was never enough. They broke up the first time because Zane never took interest in Rikki's life, but not that he does, Rikki dosen't want him to be involved anymore.

Zane curled his hand into a fist at the thought of it. As much as he wanted to go out to Mako and see if she was okay, he knew that he would end up being pushed away like he has for the past year. He didn't even know if it was worth it anymore. He didn't think Rikki cared about him as much as he cared about her.

Zane seeing his huge mansion from the side of the street, he heard his phone vibrate in the left side of his pocket. All of his angry thoughts and frustrations disappeared within a blink of an eye as he looked down at his phone. To his surprise, the person who was calling him was Lewis.

He clicked the green answer button and brought the phone up to his ear. He didn't know if he went chasing after the girls or not. Zane didn't even bother to notice since he was pretty upset with Rikki.

"Hello?" Zane asked with a questionable greeting, hearing loud noise and mumbling from the other side of the line. Its like Lewis didn't notice that Zane answered the phone.

"Zane! Are you there?! Where are you?! We need your help!" Lewis started semi-yelling into the phone, causing Zane to lower the volume on his speakers.

"Its Rikki! Apperently when her and the girls went off to Mako island, she started having contractions or something. I'm heading there right now to make sure Rikki and the girls are okay. I need you and Will to gather some baby supplies back at the boat shed!" Lewis spat out at a very fast speed.

Zane frowned, hearing Lewis say that all at once. Immediately the guilt hit Zane like a bunch of bricks. How could he be so stupid to let Rikki swim all the way out to Mako Island and not do anything about it? He knew he was being a bit paranoid with Rikki, but this something he shouldn't of ever let her do. He ended up having his anger and emotions get in the way of something so stupid and preventable.

"Shit." Zane cursed to himself, saying it louder then he wanted to. He couldn't of had this happen now. They should be going to a hospital where there were trained doctors and medical supplies. She shouldn't be going through this out in the middle of no where.

"Listen to me Zane." Lewis started going off again. "In Wills boat shed, we have a whole load of baby clothes and supplies that you need to bring over to us. We also need things such as towels and rags so the transition can happen safely. Warn Will about this. I'm far out at sea so I'm about to loose service. Hurry!" Was Lewis's last words before the phone call ended.

Zane roughly placed his phone into his left pocket, sprinting across the sidewalk and towards Will's boat shed. Never did he think that he would need to go to Will's shed as an emergency. Zane also felt at fault for having Rikki go swimming off to Mako island. Maybe if he didn't start the argument or stopped Rikki before she jumped into the ocean, she would safely be at a hospital right now.

Now seeing Will's shed at a distance, he ran to the front door to see if anyone was there. Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned around to see Will with a weirded out face. Never in a million years did Zane look so jumpy to see him there. Zane turned around and immediately ran to Will's small boat.

"Will! We need to head out to Mako... Now! We need some towels and clothes for the baby. We think Rikki's in labour." Zane flat out told Will, trying to get the boat's engine to start running.

Will still shocked to see Zane there, quickly turned around to grab some boxes and small presents that him and the girls bought for the baby shower. He didn't know how to react to the situation.

"What?! How do you know she's in labour?" Was the only thing Will managed to ask, running up to his own boat and handing Zane the presents he just grabbed.

"Because Lewis just called me saying that she was. Probably one of the girls warned him about it. I need some towels and maybe a baby carrier for once the baby is born." Zane finally got the engine to start, yelling at Will to hurry up with the extra stuff.

Will ran inside, shuffling around the boat shed to see if there was anything else he needed to bring along with them to the island. He took a couple of towels and then the baby carrier which was one of the gifts he was going to give to Rikki at the baby shower. Never did he feel so rushed into getting something done.

Finally running back outside towards Zane, he jumped into his own boat, making sure he had everything with him. With that, Zane stepped on the gas pedal of the boat and it took off with speed. Soon enough, the boat disappeared out in the middle of the ocean and they were long gone.

* * *

><p>"Ow, Ow, Ow! It hurts." Rikki whimpered in pain, still stuck in the moon pool, griping onto Emma's hand tightly. The contractions were starting to slow down, but if they didn't get out of the water quickly, Rikki would be in too much pain to get out.<p>

"Okay listen to me Rikki." Emma started talking again. "I need you to dry all of us off so we can get out of the moon pool. Me and Bella are going to help you up." Emma said with calm words, gripping onto Rikki's hand while using the other to rub her back.

With fearful eyes, Rikki nodded her head in agreement, knowing there was no turning back. With Bella's help, they were able to pull Rikki out of the moon pool and onto the sandy floor. "Ah!" Rikki slightly yelled, biting down on her lip to keep herself from screaming again. Her whole entire back was killing her and she needed to turn back into a human. She curled her fingers into a fist and started to dry off all the water on her tail. In no time at all, she had her legs back and she was able to crawl back to the corner of the cave where no water would come near her.

Bella and Emma also lifted themselves up from the moon pool, giving Rikki a look that told her to help them out. Rikki curled her fist from where she was as the steam started to rise from Emma and Bella's tail. Soon enough, all three of them had their legs back and they were able to walk around. Quickly standing up from the floor, they ran over to where Rikki was to help her out.

"Okay Rikki. I just need you to lay on your back and breathe. Cleo will be here as soon as she can." Emma tried to comfort Rikki, not sure on how she was going to do this. Emma had learned how to take care of infant babies, but never had she learned to asset somebody during birth. All of the weight feel onto her shoulders at the thought of it.

Bella grabbed onto Rikki's hand which immediately caused Rikki to jolted in pain again as another contraction hit her. "Mhmm, Ow!" Rikki held back another scream, the tears still rolling down her face. She was extremily terrified and the only thing she could do was to stay calm and breathe.

"I'm here for you Rikki. Its going to be okay." Bella stroked Rikki's curly blonde hair, still using her other hand to hold onto Rikki.

"Come on Cleo! Where are you?!" Emma bit her nail, the panic starting to rise inside of her. She didn't know if she could do this alone. She couldn't handle taking care of two innocent lives. She would need more help.

With that, Cleo's head popped out of the moon pool and Cleo swam to the very edge of the water.

"Oh, thank God! Is Lewis coming?!" Emma asked, observering Cleo as she used the muscles in her arms to carry herself out of the moon pool.

"Yes. He also called Zane so he should be coming as well. They'll be here with some equipment so that the birthing processes goes a lot easier." Cleo added, using her powers to lift the water out of her tail and dry off. Cleo was back on her two own feet, running over to where Rikki was to hold her hand.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" Cleo asked, using her thumb to stroke Rikki's hand.

"What do you think?!" Rikki gritted her teeth, breathing in and out so that she wouldn't have to scream again. The pain was so unbearable and she just wanted it to all go away.

"Okay, well Zane and Lewis are coming so they shouldn't take that long to get here." Cleo reassured Rikki, but it didn't seem like she was paying much attention to her. Rikki twisted her body one way and another, but she couldn't get into a comfertable position. It ended up causing more pain in her back then it did before.

"AH! Ow! Oh God!" Rikki squeezed both Cleo and Bella's hands as another painful contraction hit her. Her breathing continued on fast and she didn't know how to keep calm. Her whole body felt like it was going to explode.

Emma awkwardly sitting down in-between Rikki's legs, she closed her eyes and tried to think on how she was going to this. She never thought in her entire life that she would need to do this for somebody, let alone Rikki.

"Okay... it going to be okay." Emma mumbled to herself, not knowing if she was trying to comfort herself, or Rikki. Maybe both. Looking at the situation that they were in, she took a deep breathe and stayed focused on what they needed to do next.

"I need you to listen to me Rikki." Emma tried to grab Rikki's attention. "We need to remove your shorts and your undies. Do you need help or can you do this on your own?" Emma felt stupid and uncomfortable asking Rikki this question.

"Just great. Exaclty how I planned out my day." Rikki said in a raspy voice, the pain too over whelming for her worry about it.

"Well maybe if you didn't open your legs 9 months ago, we wouldn't be in this situation." Emma snarked, a little stressed out on where this was going to go. She didn't know if she could continue on with helping Rikki deliver. It made her stomach turn just thinking about.

"Speaking of the devil." Rikki breathed in-between sentences. "Where the hell is Zane?! This is mainly his fault." Rikki tightened her grip on Bella's hand. She couldn't tell if a contraction was going to come over her again. All she felt were waves of pain go through out her entire body.

"Well as you know, it takes two to tango." Emma said in a matter of factly, not knowing if she should help Rikki take off her shorts. It just seemed so awkward and out of place.

"Aw! Great Em! I'm glad you were able to point that out to every- OW OW OW! AH! OH God! Shit!" Rikki screamed out, that being the most painful contraction that has hit her so far. The tears continued rolling down her face and it ended up causing herself to panic even more.

"Its okay Rikki. Your doing just fine." Bella gave some gentle encouragement, but it seemed to make Rikki more mad then she already was.

"Really?! Cause it dosen't seem like you're giving birth to a freaking watermelon!" Rikki yelled out, squeezing both Bella and Cleo's hand. Emma just rolled her eyes at her.

All of a sudden, they heard foot prints coming from the inside tunnel of the cave, and Lewis's face showed up. He looked exhausted and was breathing heavily from running all the way across the island. At the sight of seeing Rikki in labour, caused him to go extremely pale and dizzy. He ended up losing his balance and he collapsed right onto the ground.

"Oh my Gosh! Lewis!" Cleo yelled out, letting go of Rikki's hand to find Lewis unconscious on the sandy floor of the cave. "Lewis! Wake up!" Cleo slightly slapped Lewis on the face but his eyes remained closed.

"What the hell are you doing?! Im the victim here!" Rikki yelled to Cleo, feeling abounded on the right side of her body. She was so used of Cleo holding her hand that it felt strange with out her presences.

"Come on Lewis! Wake up! Don't do this now!" Cleo nudged his shoulder before his eyes went wide open and he sprang up into a sitting position. He scratched the back of his head, confused on what had just happened.

"The hell?" Lewis mumbled, looking around the cave to see where he was.

"Lewis! Are you okay? You just fainted." Cleo rubbed his back, making sure he wasn't hurt. He just sat there, almost forgetting why he was there.

"Okay! Can we please move on to something more important. I don't know how much longer I can do this for." Rikki continued talking in-between breathes, feeling an urge to start pushing.

Lewis stood up, walking over to Emma so that he could start helping her out. Cleo went back to her original position and grabbed Rikki's hand again. There was a bit of sweat developing onto Rikki's forehead and her whole body was aching in pain. She hated the fact that she laying on a sandy floor.

"Zane and Will are supposed to be coming here with towels and other supplies. Then we can continue on from there." Lewis explained to everybody, trying to keep everyone in the room calm.

"In how long will that be because I don't think I can hold it in for much longer." Rikki said in fast rapid breathes, the contractions going through out her body in short bursts.

Immediately as she said that, Zane and Will had entered the cave in quick motion. They were caring many baby supplies and there were towels wrapped around their shoulders. They were both breathing heavily and it looked like they had ran for 10 miles straight. They both looked warned out.

Zane ran over to Lewis so he could give him a few extra towels. As for Will, he was setting down the baby carrier and clothes along the walls of the cave. They were prepared for whatever was coming next.

"Here Rikki, were going to place this towel underneath you so that the sand doesn't get in our way. We need to do this in the safest, cleanest way possible." Emma mentioned in a gentle voice, helping Rikki drag the towel underneath her body. With all of that, Zane stood up and ran around Rikki so that he could help her sit up. She rested her body on his chest so that she had some sort of support system during the birth.

"Hey. How are you doing?" Zane asked, using gentle words to sooth Rikki. Obviously, he miserably failed.

"Really? How am I doing?! Just get this thing out of me!" Rikki gritted through her teeth, her chest rising up and down as she continued breathing very heavily.

Immediately another contraction hit Rikki and she started to scream again.

"AHH! OWW!" Rikki, Cleo and Bella started screaming at the same time, the two of them almost falling down ontop of Rikki.

"Why you guys screaming?! You not delivering a baby!" Rikki asked, trying desperately to regain some oxygen back into her lungs.

"Your squeezing our hands to hard." Bella complained.

"What are you trying to do? Break them?" Cleo asked, feeling one of her fingers ache in pain where Rikki squeezed her hand.

"Maybe." Rikki replied in slight sarcasm, her body in too much pain to reply back with some enthusiasm. She just felt the need to push at this point.

"Rikki, I'm going to help you remove your shorts. Just try to keep still." Emma reminded Rikki.

Lewis and Will were watching from a distance, not knowing what they could do to help. Lewis was still looking a bit pale and he started to become dizzy after a while. He did everything he could to no pass out again. Zane was still behind Rikki, stroking her hair and letting Rikki relax on his chest. He didn't want her head laying down on the dirty sand.

Emma finally got her shorts and undies off of Rikki, throwing it across the cave so it wasn't in the way. She grabbed a towel and placed it onto of Rikki's legs so that she would have some privacy while doing this. It was already bad enough that they were stranded on an island with no help.

"Okay, whenever you're ready, you can go." Emma gave Rikki the okay to start, but Rikki was already covered up in sweat and her body was already overwhelmed. She couldn't imagine how exhausted she would be after the birth.

With Emma's okay, Rikki started to push and continued on the birthing process from there. Lewis had to asset Emma so that everything went smoothly and so that Emma wouldn't get contaminated with any sort of water liquids. This continued on for at least an hour before Rikki was able to feel the baby pass through her. First the head, then the shoulders and after what seemed like days, the baby extracted painfully from Rikki's body and Lewis was finally able to catch the baby in time.

The cave echoed with the baby's cry and exhaustion took over Rikki's body. She ended up collapising onto Zane's chest where she was covered in sweat and tears. Never in her life was she so happy to hear a baby cry. It was the most beautiful sound that she had ever heard in her life. It was indescribable at how happy and overwhelmed she was right now.

"Congratulations. It's a girl." Lewis exclaimed, walking over to the moon pool where he could use some water to clean off the baby.

Rikki slightly smiled when he mentioned that. She closed her eyes and let herself relax. She had a feeling of joy come across her at the thought of it. She couldn't believe it. She was now a mother.

Emma grabbed a small purple towel and waited for Lewis to place some water on the small baby girl. He placed some water on the babies back. Waiting for the moment of truth. Everyone was looking over at Lewis, seeing if the baby would react to the water. In no more than 10 seconds, a small orange tail formed on the babies legs and they immediately knew she was a mermaid.

Zane letting Rikki relax on the ground, walked over to Lewis to handle the baby. Gently taking the purple towel out of Emma's hands, he wrapped the little baby girl in it and cleaned off her fragile face. Only the fin of her tail was sticking out of the towel and he slowly carried it back to Rikki. This was probably the first time he had ever held a baby. Never had he had to hold one before.

Helping Rikki go back into a sitting position, Zane placed the baby onto Rikki's arms and let her cradle it. The baby girl had curly locks of brown hair and her bright blue eyes opened to revile the world in which she was brought into. Mermaid or not, she was absolutely gorgous. Tears were still slightly rolling down Rikki's check at the sight of it.

"She's beautiful." Cleo broke the silence, everyone admiring the baby in aw. Bella and Emma both smiled at each, Zane so fascinated at the looks of her. It was almost unreal that they had come this far. The baby looked just like them.

The baby gave out a small squeal as its head tucked into Rikki's chest. Her eyes shut closed and she finally feel asleep. No one made a sound while they looked down at her. She was the most beautiful baby anyone had ever seen. Rikki gazed at her daughter, never taking her eyes off the innocent life she had just created.

"So, what are you going to name her?" Emma asked, everyone now looking and Rikki and Zane for a response.

"I- I don't know. We never came up with a name." Rikki replied honestly, admiring the little girl in her arms. "I thought I would have come up with a name once I saw her, but I don't really know." She added, kissing the top of the baby's head.

Cleo tilted her head, getting a glimpse of the baby's tail.

"Hmm, it looks like she has a birth mark on her fin." Cleo mentioned, pointing out to everyone where it was on her tail.

"I see it." Bella smiled, still amazed that the baby was a mermaid like all the girls.

"It looks like a Lily Pad." Cleo observed, admiring the little baby bundled into Rikki's arms.

"Lily..." Rikki mumbled to herself, looking back down at her daughter and again at her birth mark. It matched the way she looked perfectly.

"Lily... I like the name Lily." Cleo replied, everyone nodding their heads in agreement.

"I think it's perfect." Zane added, using his finger to hold onto the baby girls hand. Her hand was so small and fragile that it was able to wrap around one of Zane's fingers. She let out a small yawn, still keeping her eyes closed. She didn't move at all after that. She was very peaceful and seemed comfertable where she was laying.

It didn't take long for Rikki's breathing to go back to normal. Even though her whole entire body was sore, looking down at Lily took away all the pain that she was ever in. Everyone sat around Rikki, still gazing at the baby cradled in her arms. For once, everyone there felt connected with each other and its like all of their problems had disappeared. Who knew such a small life could bring everyone so close together. All seemed perfect in the world... at least for now it did.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I wanna thank everyone for all their reviews and support. I would of never gone this far with out all of your motivation! I have many many more exciting chapters coming up so this isn't over! I also read every single one of your reviews so please leave one! You guys are awesome! :D xoxo**


	20. It's Just The Beginning

Crying. It was the only noise they heard everyday and night for the past two weeks. It was a constant reminder of the huge responsibility they now had to face. No matter what they did, Lily would never stop the constant crying. Rikki tried feeding her, changing her diaper, playing with her, and even tried to get her to sleep in her crib, but nope, she just continued on.

Rikki's eyes were red from waking up 5 times a night to keep Lily from crying. Even Zane was a mess with the lack of experience he had on raising kids. Rikki could barley walk the first week since she was still in a lot of pain after giving birth, causing Zane to do a lot of the work. Unfortunaitly for him, Zane had not a single clue on how to take care of a baby. It became so bad that Cleo ended up having to stay at Zane's house with Rikki.

Rikki and Cleo both switched back and fourth whenever Lily would wake up in the middle of the night. It was very exhausting and overwhelming. Rikki and Zane didn't realize how much work it would be to take care of a baby til now. Even Cleo felt sleepy all the time from trying to help Rikki and Zane with their daughter.

"Come on Lily. Mommy is right here." Rikki held the baby her arms, trying to get her back to sleep. It was six in the morning and probably an hour was the most sleep Rikki and Cleo had that night. Even Zane had to come into the room to asset Cleo and Rikki with the baby.

"What is it that you want? I feed you, changed your diaper, handed you a stuffed animal..." Crying... Thats all she got from Lily and Rikki bounced the little baby back and fourth so that she would calm down.

"You know, asking her what's wrong isn't going to do anything." Cleo mumbled in her pillow, still half asleep from staying up all night.

"I know but she's been crying for 15 minutes straight and she won't go back to sleep." Rikki mentioned in frustration, wanting to cry from how tired she was. She never felt this exhausted in her life.

Cleo immediately removed the sheets from her body and stood up to help Rikki. Cleo grabbed Lily from Rikki's arms and placed her fragile head on her shoulder.

"Good girl Lily. Just go back to sleep." Cleo rubbed her back, hearing Lily cry softly into her arms. After 3 minutes of Cleo holding Lily on her shoulders, Lily's eyes closed shut and she started falling back to sleep.

"I think she's sleeping again." Rikki whispered, looking down at her daughters. She could see wet tears rolling down Lily's small face.

"Here we go." Cleo set the girl down into the crib, placing a small blue blanket ontop of her. In no time at all, she was laying on her back, sucking on her thumb in peace. Rikki sighed in relief to hear silence again in her room.

Cleo's eyes were sagged down and with out saying a word, she immediately climbed back into bed and covered herself in a blanket. Rikki did the same thing after making sure Lily was 100% asleep. The sun was barley coming up and they knew that in a few hours, they would have to wake up and start another day of trying to keep Lily happy.

Rikki wanted Lily to stay at her place, but she was pretty much disabled from walking for the first week. Rikki was also no expert at raising a baby. At this point, it felt like she's been doing this for months. She already felt like she was failing as a mother.

If it was Rikki's guess on how long she had been asleep, it would of been a few minutes but again, she woke up from Lily's cries. This time instead of it being 6 in the morning, it was already 8:30. Still unalert and exuasted from last night, she sat up to see that the sun was already up and it was morning. She could have sworn she was asleep for only five minutes.

Cleo immediately grabbed the pillow next to hers and wrapped it around her head. Cleo didn't want to hear it any more. She just wanted one peaceful night of sleep. Rikki immediatly walked over to Lily's crib, and gently picked her up. Since Lily was born early, she was still very small and Rikki was scared of hurting her. She let Lily cry on her shoulder and walked out of the room, doing her best to not disturb Cleo's sleep.

Rikki placed Lily into her baby carrier in the kitchen and started taking out the bottle and milk so that she could feed Lily. Placing it into the microwave, Zane immediately came downstairs from hearing her cries. His hair was a mess and even though he had more sleep then Rikki and Cleo, he still looked like a walking zombie. He had ended up waking up twice durning the night to make sure everything was going okay.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Zane asked, not really thinking about what he was saying. He felt like he was dream walking.

"I'm going feeding her. She keeps crying every so hour." Rikki replied back dully, punching in 15 seconds into the microwave. All Rikki and Zane heard were the cries of Lily in the background. It was surprising how long a baby could cry for with out stopping.

"Hey! You can't put the bottle into the microwave. You have to place the bottle in a bowl of hot water so that the milk dosen't become too warm for Lily." Zane explained, taking the small bottle of milk from the microwave. Rikki frowned, not understanding half of what Zane was saying.

"What? How do you even know this?" Rikki scratched her head, blinking constantly to keep herself awake.

"Cleo told me. Apparently she babysits or something. I don't know. Thats just what I learned from her." Zane mumbled, taking the bowl and filling it up with hot water so Rikki wouldn't risk the chance of turning into a mermaid. He grabbed the bottle that was placed onto the counter and then dipped it into the bowl.

Whille Zane was getting it ready, Rikki picked up her crying Lily and tried to do what Cleo did this morning. Obviously it didn't work. She rubbed her back and placed Lily's head on her shoulder but it never did settle her down. Rikki just soon started giving up, ignoring Lily's screams of cries through out the house. Rikki was now getting used of Lily crying all the time.

"Here, lets see if this works." Zane slowly walked up to Rikki, grabbing Lily and placing the bottle into her mouth. In just a few short seconds, Lily was able to recoginzed the bottle placed her mouth and she started drinking the milk from it. Her crying stopped.

Zane trying to be extra-careful with Lily, he sat down on the coach so that she would relax in his arms. Lily didn't mind and continued drinking from the bottle. Rikki used her hand to brush back her hair and sat down next to Zane to make sure she was doing okay.

"Man, I tried doing that all night but she never drank from the bottle." Rikki complained in a whisper, her eyes closing every so often. Zane didn't reply, holding the bottle so that Lily could drink from it. The lack of sleep from the both of them, caused them not to talk. This little girl drained every once of energy they had left, including Cleo.

"Why don't you go back to sleep? I can handle her for the rest of the morning." Zane suggested, Rikki too tired to decline Zane's offer.

Rikki slowly standing up from the coach, she saw sleepy Cleo walking into the room. She looked just as tired as Zane and Rikki, maybe even worse since she had been doing most of the work for the past week in a half. Rikki to this day was surprised Cleo was still here with them.

"Hey. How is Little Lil doing? I thought you may need some help?" Cleo wondered, crossing her arms from entering the chilly room. Even though Cleo didn't look her best right now, she still put on a strong face and was eager to help in any way possible.

"Thanks Cleo but I think we got it from here." Rikki softly replied, standing up from the coach and walking back to her guest bedroom. Before entering her room, she stopped and placed her hand on Cleo's shoulders.

"You are such an amazing friend and I don't think I could be doing this with out you." Rikki whispered, enjoying the peace in Zane's house. Cleo gave a small shrug and smile, happy to hear Rikki's appreciation towards her. This was stressful on everybody.

"Yeah! No problem. I'm glad to help." Cleo smiled, turning around to face her. She really was doing her best to be there for Rikki and Lily.

"But don't you think you should be going back to the university? I don't want you getting behind in school because of me and Zane." Rikki pointed out to Cleo. Its not that she wanted her to leave, its just she would feel guilty if Cleo ended up failing one of her classes because of her.

"Oh don't worry about that." Cleo answered. "Emma is sending me all of my homework plus every weekend, I revise what we did in class, so I shouldn't get too behind." Cleo reassured Rikki. Adding more stress on Cleo was never Rikki's intention.

"I know but, I shouldn't be placing all of my problems onto you. I think me and Zane can take it from now. Atleast go back this Monday. If we need any help at all, I'll call." Rikki encouraged her, making Cleo sigh in exhaustion.

"Okay, okay. But if you need anything... like anything at all, just call me and ill be here in a heartbeat." Cleo gave a small weak smile, also placing her hand on Rikki's shoulders.

"Thank you." Rikki whispered in relief. She saw Cleo walking back into her room slowly, the sun too bright to look at. She almost forgot it was almost 9 o clock in the morning.

Rikki took a quick glance back at Zane and Lily to see that Zane had fallen asleep quicker than his own daughter. The sight of it was funny, but Rikki was too tired to laugh or even smile.

Walking over to Zane to nudge his shoulder, Zane immedialty jumped up and almost forgot what he had been doing. Lily was disturbed by Zane's quick movement, but didn't take her long to close her blue eyes and fall back asleep.

As the weeks went by, they releazed that Lily would only fall asleep for long periods of time when Zane or Rikki held her. It was said that new borns like to sleep on their parents chest since they are so used of hearing their mothers heartbeat during the pregnancy. Unfortunately for the both of them, Zane and Rikki didn't have the energy to hold her all night. They just wanted her to sleep peacefully in her crib.

They've tried playing music or baby songs, but nothing officially made her go to asleep unless she was cradled in Rikki or Zane's arms. They could already see the stubborn side of Lily and she was only 2 weeks old.

"Well there goes my morning nap." Zane scratched his head, using the other hand to still support Lily's head and body. She was as light as a feather.

"Oh don't complain. Me and Cleo were basically up all night trying to get her to fall asleep. You only woke up twice the whole entire night." Rikki rolled her eyes, not in the mood to hear Zane yapping about his lack of sleep. Already thinking about it made her tired.

"Thanks for your consideration." Zane mumbled in sarcasm, letting his head lay against the coach. Lily was still sucking on the bottle even though it didn't contain any milk.

"Let me get her pacifier." Rikki moaned in exhaustion, walking over to her baby carrier and grabbing the pacifier that was underneath her white and pink poke-dotted blanket. When Rikki started to take the bottle out of Lily mouth, she started giving out small gasps of cries but she soon settled back down once the pacifier was in Lily's mouth.

"Feel like giving up yet?" Zane tried to joke around, but his voice was dull and not very enthusiastic.

"Trust me, if I don't get more than a few hours of sleep, I might collapses on the floor." Rikki crossed her arms, looking back down at her daughter. Everything about Lily resembled Rikki and Zane.

Her eyes were bright blue like Rikki's, but even as a small baby you could see her small curls developing on her fragile head. Lily's hair was a soft brown like Zane's and her skin tone was very close to his. But most of all, the features on her face was both similar to Zane and Rikki. They couldn't tell who she looked like most.

"Well, I'm going to put this little one back in her crib. Maybe now she will sleep." Zane gently stood up, using both of his arms to cradle Lily. He slowly started walking into Rikki's guest room where her crib was. The pacifier that Lily was sucking on really helped her sleep. She would barley ever cry and it made for some silence around the house.

They were now responsible of a innocent life which made it more difficult since Lily was a mermaid just like Rikki. How were they going to protect her? Would she be able to live a normal life like every other child? What would happen if anyone found out about Lily?

These were all questions Rikki and Zane asked themselves and it did scare them if anything bad like this were to occur on Lily. It wasn't her fault that this happened to her, and they didn't want Lily to live a life of hiding. It was already hard enough for Rikki to keep her secret for 3 years, so for Lily it would be even harder.

Who knew what the future would hold for Lily but whatever it was, everyone knew it wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

><p><strong>-Denman's Boat-<strong>

It was almost four weeks since Denman had seen that photo of the mermaid and the longer she waited, the more frustrated she became. She had done everything to find out who this girl was and had found out absolutely nothing about her.

Where did this girl come from and how come she was only seen at Mako once out of a 4 month period? Was she not from around this area? Did they miss their chance of discovering mermaids again? Denman didn't want to give up but she had no resources of where she could find this person. It became more useless as time went by.

Unfortunately, only a few people onboard knew about the mermaid photo, so the crew members were now starting to become a little more suspicious of why they were staying at the Gold Coast for so long. Denman would distract them with tasks and jobs that were rather pointless just to keep them occupied, but it wouldn't take much longer for them to realize what was going on. She only had so much time left before she had to confront everyone with the photo.

Even if she knew this girl, how would she be able to approach her? Would they talk to her, black mail her or even do what they did last time with Cleo, Rikki and Emma? Capture her? Just thinking about it made the situation more difficult and all of those options seemed rather unrealistic. Denman didn't want to scare off the only mermaid she knew about. She already learned once from her mistakes.

She had been writing in her journal of all the ideas she could use to attract this girl back to them, but it didn't play well in her mind. For God's sake, they don't even know who she was, let alone create a plan to find out more about her. If Denman were to ask anyone else about this, they would say she was wasting her time. Unless there was another photo of this girl, maybe they would be able to track her down, but there wasn't and she didn't know how much longer she could wait.

Grabbing a stack of paper from her file cabent, Denman saw one of her crew members Gregg approaching her on the boat. He looked occupied with a task that she assigned him this morning. He had been driving back and fourth to the marine park, grabbing information and research for Denman herself.

To be honest, she really had no interest for most of the tasks she assigned the crew members. She didn't even care what Vincent had been doing for the past few weeks and he was one of the best workers here. He actually did find some interesting plants around Mako island that attracted a very rare species of fish, and even then it didn't catch Denman's attention. Everyone could sense her weird behavior but everyone continued on like normal.

Gregg slowly walked onto the boat, going to the giant table in the center to grab some paperwork he needed for the marine park. He had been obediently following Denman's orders ever since they discovered that picture of the mermaid. No matter what he did, it never was good enough for her.

They have been stuck at square one for the past month and there was not much they could really do. The least thing they wanted to do was to show this picture to the media. That was the last resort Denman had in mind for discovering this girl. All the fame, wealth and research would disappear in a day if she anonced it to the public.

"Any luck." Gregg interrupted Denman thoughts, causing her to jerk her head in surprise. She almost forget he was standing right in front of her.

"Actually no, to be honest." Denman looked down at her research, not glancing up at Gregg. You could hear the disappointment and frustration in Denman's voice as she replied back.

"Well is there anything else you would like me to do? I'm returning those media files..." Gregg started saying but he was interrupted by Denman's comeback.

"No!" She snapped back, slamming the files on the table. She finally took a deep breathe after relizing how loud she was talking. This was stressing her out to the point that she had no idea what to do. Never had she felt this disappointed with herself in her life.

"I mean no." She calmly replied back, lowering the tone in her voice. "I think we might of tried everything at this point. The only thing we can really do is wait for something else to come up again." She mentioned in frustration, opening her laptop to place Gregg's information into a word document.

She kept pinching in the keys, not observing everything that was going. She kept getting a message on her laptop of an important data link, but she didn't see it as anything important. She was too distracted with all of her thoughts and ideas. She hadn't been like this ever since Cleo, Rikki and Emma had escaped and given up their powers at Mako.

"Beep, Beep." Her laptop went off again with an important data link. It had been going off all morning.

"Whats that?" Gregg asked, looking over Denman's shoulder to see the small red pop up bubble on her laptop. It kept saying _Urgent Data Link_ on it.

"I don't know. Nothing important for all I care." Denman mumbled, continuing to type the information on the word document. Her lack of curiosity pushed away anything that she was working with. It simply didn't matter to her.

"Well it seems important from what I see." Gregg faught back, immediately regretting the words that came out of his mouth. This was no time to get on Denman's bad side. She was defiantly not in the mood for anything else, even though she usually never behaved like this.

Denman stopped her work to glance back at Gregg. "Don't you have some media files you need to return?" Deman asked with annoyance, placing one of her hands on her hip.

"Yes, I do. But I wouldn't want to miss any more opportunities of discovery. Didn't we already make that mistake?" Gregg calmly replied, hoping she would at least take interest in something other than little projects she've been keeping from the rest of the crew.

Denman sighed, clicking the link that had been annoying her all morning and all week. Well, at least for the amount of time it had been beeping for. It could of be more information about that plant vincent had dicrovered, or more of those tasks the marine park had been requesting for, or more...

Clicking the link, it popped up as a underwater photo. It threw Denman off for a few seconds before she could concentrate on what was on the photo. You could hear a small gasp from Gregg before Denman could relized what it was.

It was another photo of a mermaid, except for one mermaid, there were four. They weren't all in the same photo but you clearly see they were all different people. There was even a picture with two mermaids in it to prove there was more than one.

Denman kept scanning through the photos to see there were at least ten of them. It was unbelievable. She had been so mad and disappointed with her lack of discovery on this one mermaid, she didn't even take the time to look back through her underwater photos.

This time, she looked carefully at all the girls faces. There she was, the same girl as it was in the last photo except for this time, she was swimming with someone else. The girl next to her also had blonde hair as her except... It couldn't be. "Was that, _Emma_?"

Denman's eyes went wide in shock to see Emma in that photo. How was that even possible? She gave up her powers almost three years ago. It had to be impossible.

With the next photo there was another girl except with brown long hair. Wait a second...

"I know these girls." Denman whispered to see Cleo's familiar face. The only difference with the girls were that they looked older and a lot more mature. She was surprised to see how grown up they looked, it had been quite a long time.

That means if Cleo and Emma were mermaids... was Rikki one too? Looking back at all the photos again, she tried to find if Rikki was in any of them. Making sure she didn't skip any phtots, she found one that was distengly different from the rest of them.

She was certain that this was another mermaid except she looked... pregnant? She could immediately recognize her face which was Rikki but it was strange to see her like this. After observing the photo for another minute, she knew for a fact that this was Rikki, except she was thrown off by her pregnancy.

Boy, had a lot happened since she was gone. The only thing she didn't understand was why she hadn't seen these girls swim at Mako for 5 months... Lewis. It was the first name that popped up in her head when she asked herself that question.

She had talked to Lewis right when she arrived at the Gold Coast. She hadn't even placed cameras around the island when she talked to him which means he warned the girls before they went swimming again.

Even though the idea was frustrating, she was also excited for this discovery. A million thoughts had popped into her mind but none of them came out as clear result of what she was going to do. She still had that question in the back of her head asking, who the other girl was in the photo?

Etheir way, that girl was connected to Cleo, Rikki and Emma meaning it wouldn't be too hard to track her down.

"What are we going to do?" Gregg finally asked after a very long silence. Even Denman didn't know the answer to that. This was way more than she ever expected.

"I guess we wait." She replied back after thinking about his question. She was still absently glaring at the photo of mermaids on her laptop.

"What? What do you mean we wait? Isn't this what we have been waiting for this whole time?" Gregg asked in confusion, not understanding what she meant by that.

"We wait for a good time to approach the girls. Make a plan or something. We can't do what we did last time. I don't want to scare them away again." Denman thought to herself, all of the ideas building up inside her thoughts.

"What about that one girl? Umm... Rikki? Does that mean her kid would also be a mermaid?" Gregg asked, looking at the photo of Rikki again. She had to be at least 8 months pregnant in that picture.

That immediately brought up a whole new chain of questions in Deman's thoughts. It could be possible. Who knew what other abilities or talents these four girls had. With one more mermaid it meant more discoveries and research. Who knew what else they could do. It was just all in a matter of time before she could make a move. And she needed to find a plan quick... before something else got in the way.

**A/N: Hehe! Another cliff hanger and for that I'm REALLY sorry. Why? Probably because I won't be able to update for a while. Im going back to school so it might be a month before I write another chap. For that, I apologize in advance. Ether way please review! It always makes my day and gives me ideas to add to my story. Thanks again :D**


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